Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD) – our multi-award-winning jewel of a professional theatre – took the unprecedented step of extending the run of the first play of their 25th Anniversary Season days before opening night. Due to enormous popular demand, LOST IN YONKERS by Neil Simon is now running through November 23.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one excited about the prospect of revisiting (or in my case finally seeing!) Neil Simon’s most highly awarded (1991 Pulitzer for Drama and Tony for Best Play), ambitious, and riveting comedy drama that’s considered the apex of his prolific career. While everyone’s heard of him and likely enjoyed numerous shows penned by America’s most popular playwright of the 20th century (notably four plays running at once on Broadway and a street bearing his name), even Simon himself admits to being awed, years later, by scenes from this play during a tribute in his honor. Writing in his memoir: “When they got to ‘Lost in Yonkers,’ I listened in awe at the power of the words, and silently I said to myself, ‘God I wish I could write like that.’” Adding, “No one said you had to be sane to be a playwright.”
Maybe not sane, per se, but you do need an incredible sense of observation, an ear for dialogue, and a gut understanding about what makes humans tick at a particular place in time. Simon enjoyed all these gifts and, happily, the drama experts at Palm Beach Dramaworks were able to assemble a truly gifted director, cast, and creative team to do justice to the playwright’s most iconic work. So much so, that even those who’d seen the play on Broadway were as moved as first-timers. I recommend everyone see this play because, frankly, it speaks loud and clear toward healing our own inter-generational and socially divisive traumas by illustrating how a family can overcome age-old grievances and set a new course, together, despite their sordid past. The resolution of Simon’s uniquely dysfunctional family in Yonkers may hold hope for politically torn American families, everywhere.
Let’s get to specifics. Set in 1942, soon after the U.S. entered WWII (a radio broadcasts the latest war news), we meet two sweltering and anxious young teens who’d landed in their grandmother’s house in Yonkers, NY (just north of the Bronx). They anxiously await their father (who’s busy pleading with his mother behind a closed door) to take them home and relieve them of their misery. As the brothers chat, we discover their history with the tyrannical grandmother, including two aunts and an uncle – siblings of their dad and all ill-fated recipients of German Grandma Kurnitz’s cane-wielding reign of terror.
Commonly described as a “coming of age” story about two boys, I feel “Lost in Yonkers” actually refers to losses endured by all the family members – either through death or lost dreams or both – which are slowly revealed throughout the play. As for the “coming of age” theme – not only the boys, but every single character, in their own way, grows and “comes of age.” Even ancient, set-in-her-ways Grandma finally faces the cruelty of her survival strategies and softens, just a bit, to accept the love of her progeny.
To present Neil Simon’s “most powerful and profound” work, PBD’s producing artistic director William Hayes engaged the directorial expertise of Julianne Boyd, founding artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, whose direction steered over 27 years of critically acclaimed performances. Our own venerated and highly sought-after local star, Laura Turnbull, was chosen for the pivotal role of steel-willed, German-Jewish refugee, Grandma Kurnitz.
Overly solicitous and still anxious around his mother, Grandma Kurnitz’s son Eddie is played by PBD newcomer Patrick Zeller whose distinguished resume boasts both classical theater and popular roles in TV and film. Eddie’s a kind, loving father who is forced to leave his boys for 10 months with his abusive mother because it’s the only way he can get a job that will earn enough to repay the nine thousand dollars he owes loan sharks who’d funded decent hospital care for his dying wife’s final months. He’ll be traveling throughout the South selling scrap metal to build ships and aircraft now crucial to the war effort. If his debt isn’t fully paid within the year, he was told he’d forfeit his life.
Like a breath of fresh and ditzy air, Eddie’s somewhat mentally challenged but surprisingly caring sister (given that she’d remained at home with Grandma Kurnitz all these years) Aunt Bella (to the boys) arrives on the scene. Or rather is helped to find her way when the kids see her pass by their house from the upstairs window. Bella, who’d had scarlet fever as a baby and didn’t speak till she was five, was declared developmentally behind by doctors. She’s often described as a naive and childlike woman of “35 going on 15.”
But she also harbors the Kurnitz inner strength when it comes to family and doing what she considers right. It is only because Bella completely ignores her mom’s wishes that the boys end up staying. Bella proceeds to set up their sofa bed, provide drinks and dinner, and even threatens to leave Grandma (who depends on her for a lot) alone should she turn them out. The grandmother never actually agrees to their keep, but goes along, presenting the boys with a lengthy list of “do’s and don’ts” in her home.
Bella’s growth from childlike compliance with her mother’s wishes to embracing her nephews with love and attention, then sharing her secret dream of getting married and having children of her own to shower with love, is another major dramatic thread of the play. One can’t help but fall in love with Bella and root for her success, thanks to a beautifully nuanced performance by multi-talented actor/playwright Fig Chilcott, a lifetime Actors Studio member with Off-Broadway acting and producing credits.
Another female aunt who arrives late in the play and exhibits breathing problems when speaking (primarily when she’s around her mother) is PBD and active South Florida theater presence, Suzanne Ankrum, whose struggling inhalations make for a strikingly real Gert.
Then there’s the sudden nighttime appearance of scary Uncle Louie who, in contrast to Eddie’s subservience, gained Grandma’s respect by standing up to her and being the tough guy who never cried. He did, however, become mixed up with the mob. Louie rejects being referred to as a mobster’s henchman who collects hot money, but he’s on the run, keeps a pistol in his waistband, and carries a black case that we can only assume holds illicit gains. Uncle Louie both impresses and bullies his nephews; still he respects the older boy when he loudly tells him off after frightening his younger brother. He also shoves the kids aside so he can get some sleep in “his” sofa bed.
Jordan Sobel absolutely owns his role as the brash, muscular gangster who nonetheless displays true concern for his family – especially when he fears Bella had been taken advantage of. He even lets her bully him into staying (when he really needs to get away) for her “family news.” The popular Brooklyn-based actor is also a PBD alumnus, starred locally and regionally around the country, Off-Broadway, on TV and Prime, and also works as a movement and fight instructor (well that accounts for his buff physique!).
Eddie’s two teen sons are on stage practically the entire time and while there are many Kurnitz family stories, the play starts and ends with their story and how they manage to hold up, grow up, and deal with ongoing shocks following their mother’s death. They are lucky to have each other, a caring father who writes often, and a nurturing caretaker in Aunt Bella.
From the onset – commencing with snidely, humorous descriptions of their Grandma and how she’d ruined various family members (which also clue us into the play’s key characters) – the boys exhibit immature selfishness but also rare honesty (particularly in the younger brother), along with growing resilience and care for others (as when the older brother insists they “do their time with Grandma” so their father can work and survive). Both actors are likely several years older than their ages in the play (with serious stage credits to their names) but they are 100 percent believable as 15-and-a-half-year-old and 13-and-a-half-year-old teens.
Will Ehren plays older grandson Jay (or “Yacob” as Grandma insists on calling him, and he goes along) with all the expressive angst of a youngster stuck in a horrible situation where he’s not only forced into being the adult voice of reason and guardian to his younger brother, but must also deal with his anger at life’s unfairness – all at once. He can’t even let out his feelings because when his grandmother notices his tears, she denounces crying as a weakness. But he tells his brother: “I drew a picture calling her ‘Frankenstein’s Grandma’ because she was the only one at mom’s funeral who didn’t cry.”
With their world turned upside down and hearing that their father had developed an irregular heartbeat, these two honest kids would happily resort to crime for cash to save their dad. First they fruitlessly search the basement of Grandma’s candy store when they hear she’d been hiding her earnings. Later Jay begs his criminally connected Uncle Louie to take him on as a protege so he can make real bucks. But Louie will have none of that, much to Arty’s relief.
When they first arrive, Jay is also the one who tries, as best he can, to keep his younger brother in line so as not to upset the grandmother that their nervous dad is so eager to impress (though they have no idea why). But Arty (who Grandma calls “Artur,” but he rejects) can only hold out for so long, finally saying “yes” to at least a small Aunt Bella Ice Cream Sundae Special and, when no ones around, jumping gleefully atop a cushioned chair. He next tussles with his brother, causing a ripped collar – to their dad’s horror, as he’s intent on presenting his mother with pristine and perfect kids. Victor de Paula Rocha portrays Arty with believable, wide-eyed innocence one minute; youthful mischief the next (even Grandma praises his unfiltered honesty). Arty tends to be impulsive and somewhat immature but is always endearing in his childish enthusiasms and fears.
As always, PBD’s creative team sets the scene and mood with aplomb, thanks to scenic design by Bert Scott, lighting design by Carolina Ortiz Herrera (who spotlights Eddie in his travels) and sound design by Roger Arnold (placing Eddie among loud passing trains). All the actors are suitably dressed in 1940s style thanks to costume design by Brian O’Keefe and speak in “gangsta” or more typical 1940s Bronx accents thanks to dialect coach Amanda Quaid. Laura Turnbull’s flawless performance as heavily German-accented immigrant Grandma Kurnitz also went off without a hitch.
Don’t miss Neil Simon … and Palm Beach Dramaworks at their finest! LOST IN YONKERS is now playing through November 23 at PBD’s Don & Ann Brown Theatre, 201 Clematis Street, West Palm Beach 33401. For tickets visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org where you can discover their entire, exciting 25th Anniversary Season, buy individual seats or a Season Subscription, and learn about additional programming. You can also call the Box Office at 561-514-4042.
The post Neil Simon’s Masterpiece, ‘LOST IN YONKERS,’ Finds Laughter and Hope for a New Generation appeared on South Florida Theater.
