Damaged Furniture Expertly Crafted by Boca Stage

By Britin Haller

After being shuttered for far too long, Boca Stage returns this month with a bang, literally and figuratively, with the outrageously dark and raunchy (did we mention raunchy?) comedy Damaged Furniture by playwright Howard Skora.

We are thrilled to welcome co-founder Keith Garsson, and Boca Stage, back to the fold, returning to the Willow Theatre where they got their start decades earlier.

In his opening remarks on opening night, Garsson, who is also this show’s director, tells us that Damaged Furniture will make you feel better about your own family. We soon realize why, because this totally dysfunctional Brooklyn household is one-of-a-kind. If you’ve ever had a relative deliver a passive-aggressive remark that was technically polite, but also devastating, you will feel right at home here.

Damaged Furniture revolves around the present day Elling family of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn who have gathered at the memorial service of their beloved Uncle Max (“The Recliner King”) who died in a freak accident at their warehouse. And we do mean freak.

Max’s nephew Doug, an out-of-work Hulu actor who has come home from L.A. to pay his respects, gets more than he bargained for when familial secrets and long-buried resentments rear their ugly heads.

Doug left Brooklyn to reinvent himself as an actor, but coming home forces him to confront their failing business, the emotional wreckage of his parents’ marriage, his father’s alcoholism, illness, and loss of one eye, his therapist sister analyzing everyone like they’re her patients, and his beloved aunt dealing with sudden widowhood in a not-so-sane way.

Seems the furniture isn’t the only thing that’s damaged.

Theater thrives on collusion which has definitely come out to play in this deeply-layered very funny (at times) play with a talented troupe of actors who bounce off each other seamlessly. And if they’re that good on opening night, we can only imagine how they’ll get going when they have a couple of shows under their belt.

Our new favorite South Florida actor bromance is the duo of Bruno Faria and Shane Tanner. We enjoyed seeing them together in Hy Juter Presents’ terrific To Life series of musical revues, but this is a completely different challenge for them to tackle. Seriously, if you’re not casting these two multiple Silver Palm and Carbonell nominees/winners in your shows, why not?

As the protagonist Doug, who also serves as a semi-narrator for the audience, Faria excels as a man torn between the career he loves, and the people he is supposed to. We feel his angst as he struggles between duty and independence because who amongst us hasn’t been in a similar kind of situation, torn between our own wishes and being the person others want us to be. Faria is just wonderful here, and on an unrelated note, we’d love to see him do Shakespeare.

There aren’t enough superlatives for Shane Tanner’s heart-breaking portrayal of the Elling patriarch. As Phil, the alcoholic father of Doug and Gina, and husband to Irene, Tanner breathes life into this flawed man who can’t seem to get out of his own way.

Everybody knows a Phil.  Phil’s language is loyalty. You stay with the family, you stay with the business, you deal with problems in the blunt, old-school Brooklyn way. He even had his son sign a contract that Doug would come home and run the warehouse if he hadn’t succeeded in Hollywood by the age of forty-five. Doug has just turned forty-five, and in Phil’s mind, a deal’s a deal.

Phil’s long-suffering wife, Irene, is played by Liz DeBeer with just the right touch. She’s obviously the glue holding them all together, but not without a price to pay with her own peace of mind. Talent obviously runs in the DeBeer clan with Liz’s daughter Brooke, who recently appeared as Luisa in The Wick’s fantastic The Fantasticks, making her mark again soon in another big local production.

As Doug’s sister, Gina, the fabulous Sharon Pfeiffer reminds us of a cross between Fran Drescher and Mike Myer’s SNL character, Linda Richman, especially during the “coffee” scene. Gina is a therapist, although not a very good one according to her mother. “Gina is the worst shrink in the world,” Irene tells Doug. “Two of her patients committed suicide last year, and they weren’t even depressed until they went to see her.”

Susan Lloyd appears as Doug’s Hollywood agent, Jo. While it’s a smaller role that’s mostly played “off-stage,” Lloyd does a great job keeping her cool while Doug is spiraling around her. Likely just a typical day in her world of dealing with actors.

Bruno Faria and Valerie diLorenzo

But it’s Valerie diLorenzo as Laurie, Doug’s recently widowed aunt, who steals the show in her battle with the Versace recliner that her husband Max lost his life to. Laurie’s grief is palpable, and the already intense Elling dynamic is only further exasperated by her refusal to accept how, and why, he died. Because who could, really?

Now let’s talk about that chair scene. Without spoiling anything, Valerie has a monologue with her deceased husband’s favorite recliner that goes beyond the parameters of civilized society, which is exactly why it’s so insane. We promise you it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

Valerie diLorenzo has a fascinating background as a NYC cabaret artist who has been in over fifty musicals. For fifteen years, she sang the National Anthem at the New York Mets’ home games. Bringing her in as Valerie was a real stroke of brilliance on Garsson’s part.

Behind the scenes praise goes to Stage Managers Nicole Roach, Guiliana Barioli (also on props), and Hannah Hayley, lighting by Nicole Roach and Laura Fulton, with sound by David Hart, and set design/construction by MNM Scenic Shop. Timothy Charles Bowman’s costumes are lovely, especially the three-piece suits for Doug and Phil, and Gina’s beautiful satin dressing gown.

One of the things that makes Damaged Furniture soar is that the structure of the script is built like a series of duets and trios, giving each pair, or group of characters, a moment where their relationships shift slightly, allowing us to see every angle of them by the end. It’s like the playwright is shining a spotlight, and rotating the furnishings around the room, so we can see where all the finish is worn off.

That structure is clever, because Skora shows, not tells, and instead of him explaining their dynamics in big speeches, we discover them through these pairings. Each small grouping fills in another piece of the puzzle. This also explains why the play feels intimate, since when you keep narrowing the focus, the stakes stay clear.

You get Doug and Phil who are the emotional backbone of the play. Their father-and-son dynamic gives us two people who might love each other, but have no idea how to express it. They can’t even bring themselves to hug, primarily due to the inciting incident that happened between them when Doug was 8 years old, and they had gone ice skating.

As Doug remembers it, Phil was drunk and intentionally ran over his son’s pinky finger, slicing it off at the joint. If that’s true, then Doug truly escaped a terrible father and would want no part of him as an adult, but Phil denies having intention, of course. But what if the real truth is somewhere in between, and they’ve just been talking past each other all this time?

In a wise choice, Skora intentionally leaves the skating incident ambiguous, making it more about how Doug remembers it. Children often interpret events emotionally rather than objectively. If Doug felt humiliated, or ignored, in that moment, that memory becomes symbolic of his father not understanding him. And here we are.

Over the years, the story hardens into mythology, as in “the time Dad skated over my finger.” From Phil’s side, it may have been something like roughhousing that got out of hand, or an accident he never realized carried so much weight. If there’s one central theme to Damaged Furniture, it’s that there are always two sides to every story.

Doug and his sister Gina have a completely different energy as siblings have a way of puncturing each other’s self-image instantly. Gina and her Ma fight so much that Gina tells her clients it must be their mother’s fault they’re so messed up. Doug and his beloved Aunt Laurie probably have the most non-dysfunctional relationship of them all, and that’s not saying much.

Because each pairing gives you a chance to see a different side of everyone. No one stays the “difficult” one, or the “reasonable” one, since the dynamic changes depending on whom they’re talking to. They’re all slightly unhinged, but also weirdly lovable. These are people who are not kooky and ridiculous caricatures, although they are kooky and ridiculous. These are three-dimensional characters capable of a gamut of feelings and emotions, and yes, even growth.

Often in these messed-up family comedies, you have one person the audience sides with, while the rest feel like obstacles. But when all of them are sympathetic in their own flawed ways, the story becomes much richer. Here, everyone is banged-up, and no one is purely the villain, rather just people with a lot of unresolved baggage who are trying to sort through it the best they can.

Another reason Damaged Furniture works so well is that everyone is orbiting around the same problem, that of what happens when you can’t escape your history. And they are all individuals who speak before they think, who are themselves as dented, scratched, and unstable as the furniture business they’re trying desperately to keep alive.

Damaged Furniture opened in L.A. in 2018 where it enjoyed a six-month sold-out run and earned multiple awards and nominations. Although it has not yet appeared on Broadway, it has developed a following in regional circles where companies often gravitate toward character-based scripts. Skora not surprisingly cites Damaged Furniture as being semi-autobiographical, since we teach best what we most need to learn.

So in the end, sort of like an old sofa you can’t quite bring yourself to throw away, Doug realizes there is worth in re-investing and re-upholstering his tattered brood. With exceptions, of course. By the time the final scene arrives, we may not have solved all of the Elling family problems, but as Director Keith Garsson promised us, we will definitely feel better about our own.

Damaged Furniture asks the question can you ever really leave the loving, but dysfunctional, background you came from? The answer, at least for Doug Elling, is why would you want to?

There’s only one weekend left, so don’t miss the Final Clearance Event on Damaged Furniture. With its great soundtrack, timeless design, and expert craftmanship, it’s the best value in town. We really hope Damaged Furniture is recognized come awards-time, because with performances built to last, and a director and script whose quality you can trust, this is one to beat.

Damaged Furniture runs through March 15 at the Willow Theatre at the Sugar Sand Park Community Center, 300 S. Military Trail, Boca Raton, FL: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m; Matinees Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. Rated PG-13 for language and sexual themes. Running time approx. 95 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $40 with group and seasonal rates available. Call 561-347-3948, or visit myboca.us/2649/Damaged-Furniture.

Britin Haller is a journalist, editor-for-hire, and an author who serves on the board of directors for the Mystery Writers of America Florida Chapter. As a celebrity wrangler, Brit regularly rubbed elbows with movie, sports, and rock stars, and as a media escort, she toured with NY Times bestselling authors. After appearing in local musicals and all-state choir, Britin studied theater at Indiana University (a Big 10 college) and the University of Evansville (Rami Malek’s alma mater).

Sharon Pfeiffer