Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/2/07

BY TOM CHESEK
CORRESPONDENT

Show a single image to several different audiences and you're often likely to get a wide range of reactions.

(STAFF PHOTO: MARY FRANK) Kelcey Watson (left) and Spencer Scott Barros rehearse a scene from "Minstrel Show, or the Lynching of William Brown," now playing at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.

That's been the case with the play on display at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch — a play in which the opening moments have drawn responses including gasps of horror, easy laughter and tense, fidgety silence.

Of course, when the image in question involves a pair of black actors in burnt-cork blackface, with painted-on white lips and the raggedy regalia of old-time minstrelsy, a reaction of some kind is pretty much in order. Before the production had completed a single dress rehearsal, a number of people in the greater Long Branch community reacted with displeasure to the show's promotional materials, resulting in posters and ads being withdrawn from circulation.

The show, however, does go on at NJ Rep — in this case, "Minstrel Show, or the Lynching of William Brown." Opening on the anniversary of the real-life incident referred to in the title, the intimate yet impactful play by Max Sparber receives a rare East Coast revival in the city that once hosted the largest Ku Klux Klan gathering in American history.

The lynching of "the Negro William Brown" — a rheumatism sufferer who was accused of molesting a 19-year-old white woman — took place not in the deep South but in 1919 Omaha, Neb. It was an event noted for its ferocity, its scale — as many as 5,000 white Omahans were said to have been involved — and the fact that the mob not only torched the county courthouse, but very nearly succeeded in lynching the mayor as well.

In Sparber's 1998 script, William Brown never appears on the stage, nor are the events of that late September night re-enacted by a cast of thousands. It's the wake of the riot, and there in the charred and battered Douglas County Courthouse (another detail-intensive piece of work by the talented set designer Quinn K. Stone), the playwright has appointed a pair of nameless, fictional characters to tell — "to teach" — a very real story.

Under the direction of Rob Urbanski, actors Spencer Scott Barros and Kelcey Watson play a pair of traveling minstrel showmen who, like many black performers of their day, make their living by rendering "tableaus of Negro life" in blackface. When the two men are detained (for purposes of testifying in the official "investigation") in the same cell that had been occupied by Brown, they review their experiences as witnesses to the terrible occurrences — and do some soul-searching as to the choices that they've made to survive in this time and place.

Despite the title, there actually is very little of a traditional "Mr. Bones"-style minstrel show on display. Having both done time at the "Parchment Farm" workhouse camp, the entertainers deliver a set of songs that originated in prison settings. We get a taste of what sort of show these characters would have put on for a black audience, including such proto-rap "toasts" as "The Signifying Monkey," along with "yahoo" songs (a format that poked fun at rural whites) and an "Amen Corner" skit involving a fiery brimstone preacher with a slick, craps-shooting congregant.

Although this marks the first time that director and cast have worked together, all three have a history with this "Show." Omaha native Watson co-starred in the play's first public showing at the Douglas Courthouse, and Urbanski has now visited this script six times.

Consequently, what could come off as preachy or didactic in lesser hands is instead invested with a mastery of the material that extends from the "complex syncopations" of the prison songs, to the voice artistry of the comic bits. Still, it's in the red meat of the story — the real-time retelling of the events leading up to the lynching and its appalling aftermath — that the actors operate on all cylinders, with their enthralling descriptions, characterizations and pantomimes abetted by Jill Nagle's lighting and the sound effects of Jessica Paz.

Given that the actors address the audience throughout, Sparber's play comes off more like a presentation than a dramatic work — a very compelling history lesson, in this case, and one (thanks to the dream-team assembled by NJ Rep) that should register well with school-age audiences and others who tend not to make a habit of the theater.

Minstrel Show or the Lynching of William Brown

A New Jersey Repertory Company presentation of a play in one act by Max Sparber.
Directed by Rob Urbinati.

With: Spencer S. Barros, Kelcey Watson.
Variety review By ROBERT L. DANIELS

Unsettling and compelling, Max Sparber's "Minstrel Show or the Lynching of William Brown" re-creates a harrowing true story about the 1919 lynching of a jailed black man, as seen through the eyes of a couple of fictional song-and-dance men. The season opener for New Jersey Repertory Company begins on a light note with a couple of knockabout minstrel comics singing "yahoo" songs from the cotton fields, then quickly turns into a graphic narrative of angry crowd hysteria.

In Omaha, Neb., amid the broken glass and debris of a ravaged county courthouse, two traveling African-American entertainers recount the mob violence they witnessed that ultimately took the lives of a half-dozen innocent spectators. Target of the collective fury was William Brown, who was accused of molesting a 19-year-old white girl.

The two-hander begins with Sho-Nuff (Kelcey Watson) and Yas-Yas (Spencer Scott Barros) illustrating the origins of the minstrel show, when white entertainers blackened their faces with burnt cork. Subsequently, even black artists had to coat themselves with shoe polish.

Through their narrative, the minstrel entertainers, who traveled the country singing and dancing in "coon shows" or "Tableaux of Negro Life,"
tell of their arrest for disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct, after a dozen hooded men beat several black members in their audience.

They witnessed the violence from their jail cell. Sho-Nuff graphically describes the mob mentality of the 5,000 rioters who stormed the Douglas County Courthouse, broke the windows and battered down the oak door to gain access to the unfortunate 40-year-old prisoner Brown, who was awaiting trial.

The "end men" are skillfully realized by Watson and Barros. One can very nearly see the mindless violence as described in Barros' chilling panoramic description of the lynching and murder. The narrative is given a sense of cinematic urgency in Rob Urbinati's taut, rhythmic staging of playwright Sparber's engrossing historical document, which resonates with unflinching horror.

The play continues to draw controversy as black members of the Long Branch community raised objections to the original poster and newspaper ad that showed cartoonish figures of minstrel performers standing near a hangman's noose. The vintage image of the entertainers was subsequently pulled from the ads.

Spencer Scott Barros and Kelcey Watson

Fiction – On the evening that the mob was growing outside the courthouse, two black minstrel show actors were assaulted in an alley while trying to escape a dozen ruffians who had invaded their show and commenced to beat everyone in sight with baseball bats and wooden planks.  Police rousted the ruffians, but then proceeded to arrest the bloodied minstrels on charges of disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct.  Brought to the courthouse and placed in a cell with Will Brown, the minstrels became witness to the horrifying mob murder.  A few days later, these black men in cork blackface were rousted mid-performance and dragged back to the courthouse to testify before a committee investigating the riot.

As Minstrel Show, or The Lynching of Willie Brown begins, these minstrels, Sho-Nuff and Yas-Yas, are entering the hearing room at Douglas County Courthouse where the ad hoc committee is gathered to hear their testimony.  We, the audience, sit in place of the committee.   Understandably distrustful and cautious, Sho-Nuff and Yas-Yas try to distract us by performing bits and songs from their minstrel show act.  However, over the next 85 minutes, we will see them gain strength and self confidence as they remove the cork from their faces and increasingly less reluctantly relate from their perspective the harrowing Omaha riot of 1919.

It is certainly of value to recall this tragedy of our history (and this was only one of close to two dozen disgraceful race riots which occurred during this dreadful year in our racial history) and it is well and harrowingly told in this account by Max Sparber.  Still, these events are as powerfully and even more fully recounted in the available photographs and historic accounts of the era.  However, it is in the transformation of Sho-Nuff and Yas-Yas from self-demeaning traveling actors scuffling to make a living to proud men determined to be witnesses and teachers, educating their people as to the horrible events that they have seen that provides the inspiration and theatrical catharsis that gives Minstrel Show its distinction.

Although the actors' names appear without any notation of their roles in the program, the characters are identified by their minstrel show routine names in Max Sparber's script. These names should be restored as playwright Sparber's subtle distinctions between them do not prevent the minstrels from at first appearing to be interchangeable stock figures.  However, director Rob Urbinati and his fine cast, Spencer Scott Barros (Yas-Yas) and Kelcey Watson (Sho-Nuff), successfully convey their two distinct personalities.

Barros' Yas-Yas is clearly more confrontational and dissatisfied with his lot.  Very early on, he removes the cork from his face, and his body language displays a combativeness which exceeds that of his words.  Watson's Sho-Nuff has a touch more down home slurring dialect in his line readings, and, for a longer time, his body language remains obsequious.  When their narrative of the riot emerges, Yas-Yas does most of the witnessing at first.  However, when their story reaches the moment when Yas-Yas is knocked unconscious, the telling of the narrative falls to Sho-Nuff.  In witnessing to the committee, Watson's Sho-Nuff, who has finally removed the cork from his face, assumes a dignity and sense of purpose which stands as an early exemplar of the determination that marked the burgeoning civil rights movement of the 1950s and beyond.

Director Ron Urbinati directed the first production of Minstrel Show in 1998 in the rotunda of the Douglas County Courthouse, the actual scene of the events depicted in the play.  Quinn K. Stone's minimal set successfully sets the scene of the fire-distressed courthouse.  The evocative, ratty minstrel show costumes are by Patricia E. Doherty.  The sound design, complete with dramatic reverberation effects, is by Jessica Paz.

At the conclusion, Yas-Yas and Sho-Nuff decide that their act needs "refashioning." we witnesses to history ...

we want that history told ...

and we want it told right

Well, author Max Sparber, director Rob Urbinati and actors Spencer Scott Burros and Kelcey Watson are telling it right at Long Branch's New Jersey Rep. 

Sho nuff.

'Minstrel Show' targets racism

(photo by SUZANNE BARABAS)
Spencer Scott Barros, standing, and Kelcey Watson in "Minstrel Show, or the Lynching of William Brown," playing at the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.

Needless to say, it's the second part of his title that Max Sparber wants us to notice.

The playwright didn't simply call his arresting drama "Minstrel Show," but "Minstrel Show, or The Lynching of William Brown."

True, every now and then, Spencer Scott Barros and Kelcey Watson, in portraying two early 20th-century African-American entertainers, do come out with an a capella riff or a few high-kicking steps. Most of the time, though, in the 85-minute play at New Jersey Repertory in Long Branch, these two accomplished actors face the audience and tell what their characters witnessed. And while they're fictional, Sparber is giving them his take on a true story that happened to one William Brown on a September night in Omaha in 1919.

Though the second part of the title tells us that Sparber has already divulged his ending, the play offers riveting and harrowing surprises. Better still, director Rob Urbinati's strong production creates a mood that makes an audience pay rapt attention.

Because Barros and Watson are two black minstrels, they must respectively endure the demeaning names of Yas-Yas and Sho-Nuff. Worse, though, in the regrettable tradition of the minstrel show, they wear blackface. How fascinating, though, to see that that make-up somehow makes them behave as caricatures. Once they take it off and thoroughly wipe their faces clean, they revert to become intelligent human beings

The story begins when they return to the Douglas County Courthouse, where Brown had been taken for allegedly raping Agnes Lobeck, a 19-year-old white laundry worker. Yas-Yas and Sho-Nuff were also brought there by the authorities as a cautionary measure.

As Yas-Yas dourly notes, "In Omaha, it's a crime for a Negro to be beaten in the street" -- leaving us to infer that once a black man is behind closed doors, it's unofficially acceptable for him to endure a merciless thrashing.

Both men point out that Brown was afflicted with terrible rheumatism, and each believes him incapable of forcing a healthy young woman into any compromising position. When the story gets too intense even for them, they interrupt themselves to recall a seemingly happy-go-lucky song of the era. Each tune's lyric, though, paints the black man as a scoundrel, thief or sexual wastrel.

The implication is that the average minstrel show's songlist informed its audiences that the black man was to be feared and certainly not trusted. Sparber reminds us that the amount of harm these so-called innocent songs dispensed may well have been considerable.

That's why, once the men finish a song and are proud of themselves for remembering the lyrics, they suddenly stop smiling.Â¥'Taint funny at all. Soon Sho-Nuff is telling a parable about a monkey, a lion and a sultan that has a much more compelling message about race relations.

It's at this point in the show, at the halfway mark, that all opportunities for laughter come to a stop. Sparber's play now concentrates on the lesson that hatred begets more hatred, and what began that night in Omaha was destined to be an unwieldy and unrelenting tragedy. Just when a theatergoer assumes that he's heard the worst part of the story, Sparber manages to find more atrocities.

They may have all been right there in Omaha city records, but Sparber, Urbinati, Barros and Watson have forged them into one compelling theater piece.

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 09/28/07

BY TOM CHESEK
CORRESPONDENT

It was the largest race riot in our nation's history, and it happened 88 years ago to this day.

On the night of Sept. 28, 1919, a mob of more than 4,000 white townspeople stormed the Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha, Neb., where a rheumatic black man by the name of William Brown was awaiting trial on charges of raping a white woman. Egged on by elements with ties to a discredited political machine boss, rioters set fire to the courthouse, stole firearms and seized Brown, hanging the 40-year-old man minutes later and setting fire to his corpse. Two other men, both white, would be killed by the rioting hordes that night — and the mayor would nearly join the death toll when he was captured and strung up from a traffic pole.

Perhaps you've seen the infamous photos of Brown's charred body surrounded by a smiling crowd of citizens, but if you're not familiar with this horrific incident, you're not alone.

The story of the 1919 Omaha riot is not generally taught in schools outside of Nebraska — in fact, it wasn't until he moved to Omaha that critic and playwright Max Sparber became acquainted with the event that continues to scar the collective memory of the Husker State.

Here on Sept. 28, 2007, New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch prepares to raise the curtain on a new revival of Sparber's two-actor play "Minstrel Show, or the Lynching of William Brown." It's a work that NJ Rep Executive Producer Gabor Barabas characterizes as a "very sensitive piece that deals with many issues."

The 1998 play has engendered its share of controversy since it was first performed in the very courthouse building that still bears the bullet holes from that night in 1919. The show's first full-stage performance in Omaha, a critical and popular success, drew harsh criticism from Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers, who urged a boycott by all African-American citizens.

The play's appearance in Long Branch has not been without its own measure of conflict. Last week, members of the city's black community objected to the minstrel-performer imagery displayed on the play's advertising and promotional materials.

After meeting with members of the community, NJ Rep agreed to pull the offending materials — a vintage poster image featuring a pair of long-legged, blackface caricatures standing near a noose — from circulation. An invitation to view a rehearsal of the play was extended to anyone who may have issues about the script. In addition, each performance will be followed by a talk-back session among cast, crew and audience, a chance to "let go of some of that emotion" in the actor's words.

According to the company's artistic director, SuzAnne Barabas, "We don't want anyone to feel pain over the image . . . our intent was to show the ugly face of racism, and to move beyond that."

"The play is not the issue," said Lorenzo "Bill" Dangler, president of the Greater Long Branch Chapter of the NAACP. He emphasized that those who opposed the poster "couldn't get past the blackface" of the stereotypes on display.

Bound as close as pages in a book, Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern forged a life together as dealers of rare volumes. As a candidate for dramatization, their story would appear to be a rather dusty collection of reminiscences -- and the thought of musicalization seems even more remote. However, in its world premiere from New Jersey Repertory Company, "Bookends" spins the women's memoir into a disarming musical narrative, braced by an infectiously sweet score and acted with refreshing vigor by an appealing cast.

The narrative, while crowded at times, spans eight decades, beginning as the antiquarians ponder retirement and recall pivotal moments in their long lives. As written by Katharine Houghton, both book and lyrics reveal the romanticism of youth, the determination of two impressionable Jewish girls who ponder the wonders of the past and worldly matters, the comfort of a lasting friendship, and "the women they were meant to be."

The pivotal roles are well structured with keenly contrasted performances. As the senior business companions, Susan G. Bob is wonderfully crusty as Leona, in contrast to Kathleen Goldpaugh's warm apple-pie Madeleine.

As their adventurous younger selves, credited with the discovery of some saucy Louisa May Alcott tomes, Jenny Vallancourt makes a worldly Leona and Robyn Kemp a girl-next-door Mady. Vallancourt returns to N.J. Rep following an acclaimed performance in D.W. Gregory's "October 1962" last fall. Here she offers a telling study of an eager student in a Strasbourg library under Nazi threat.

In an amusing turn as Leona's very married guide, Alan Souza defines "Fingerspitzengelfuhl" as a rare talent for intuitively telling if a book is really rare.

Set to music and lyrics by Dianne Adams and James McDowell, with additional lyrics by Houghton, the songs keenly illustrate life's most rewarding moments, its ironies and unfulfilled passion, and the bonding values of a lasting friendship.

"Waiting for Mr. Right" is a bright expectation of a sublime honeymoon, and there's exquisite longing in "Just Look at Him," urgently revealed by Vallancourt and reprised by a hopelessly smitten Eric Collins as "Just Look at Her." The bond between the girls is revealed in "I've Found a Friend," and there's a bright dash of irreverent humor in "Mary Magdalene's Blues," when a seductive Eileen Tepper queries, "Who do you think washed the dishes after the last supper?"

"Holmes and Watson" is a fanciful diversion, delightfully rendered by a quartet of sappy fictional gumshoes who reveal the pleasures of devouring a good thriller. Finale finds a young novice, brightly played by Pamela Bob in a knockout turn, who as heir to the literary legacy sings "There's Nothing New Under the Sun."

The score is admirably played by pianist Henry Aaronson with a plaintive lilt, but it's easy to imagine and hunger for a string section.

A few bookshelves serve as the setting, leaving the small stage to the large cast, which is required to play multiple roles that demand the attention of an alert audience. Ken Jenkins' acute staging works well within the somewhat cramped space but a more expansive production would help the show. "Bookends" has a promising future, its cinematic thrust suggesting a quaint musical film of the old school.

THEATER REVIEW

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 07/26/07

BY TOM CHESEK
CORRESPONDENT

(STAFF PHOTO: BOB BIELK) From left: Eric Collins, Robyn Kemp and Robert Lewandowski star in "Bookends," now being staged by the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.

"Dinosaurs! That's what we are," laments antiquarian book dealer Leona Rostenberg (Susan G. Bob) to her lifelong friend and business partner Mady Stern (Kathleen Goldpaugh).

The two real-life authors, editors and scholars (Rostenberg died in 2005 at age 96) are the subjects of "Bookends," Katharine Houghton's musical play now in its world premiere engagement at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.

Still, brilliant and extraordinary as Leona may have been, her nonagenarian self is not beyond such generalizations as "Nobody reads anymore; kids don't read anymore" — this in a show that opened on the day that millions of young readers queued up for their fresh-baked loaf of "Harry Potter."

Literacy, in its most passionate and pulse-pounding form, is alive and well in "Bookends" — a very genuine labor of love for Houghton and some also-extraordinary collaborators. Between the formidable bookshelves of Charles Corcoran's set, moments in time exist like favorite volumes to be plucked from their place, sniffed and caressed and re-examined for those ever-elusive clues to enlightenment.

Houghton, the actress and playwright best known for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?," took in the July 21 opening night performance from the aisle steps of NJ Rep's intimately scaled auditorium — while her husband, Ken Jenkins, watched from the exit hallway. Jenkins — whose affable, accessible presence stood in contrast to the curmudgeonly figure he cuts as Dr. Kelso in the TV series "Scrubs" — also was on hand as the director of this curious tunefest, a show which, with its 13 actors and onstage pianist, sets an all-time record for what NJ Rep founder Gabe Barabas refers to as "a postage stamp of a stage."

Fanciful yet nonfictional study

Taking its title from their shared memoirs, "Bookends" is a fanciful yet nonfictional study of two women who, by the time Houghton made their acquaintance, had entered their collective tenth decade of defying any and all expectations related to gender, culture or age. The characters are seen here as the respected scholars and authorities of later years, as well as their younger selves — with Robyn Kemp and Middletown's Jenny Vallancourt portraying Mady and Leona from their New York childhood in old-world German-Jewish families, to the establishment of their internationally renowned bibliophile business.

While the time-hopping portrait of two inseparable women might bring to mind the Bouviers of "Grey Gardens," these are hardly the dotty, self-absorbed dreamers of that recent fact-based musical — in fact, as Houghton suggests here, Rostenberg and Stern were literary detectives whose exploits eclipse those of the Nancy Drews and Miss Marples they often can't help but resemble.

Much of the show's running time concerns Leona's potentially hazardous trip to Nazi Germany in search of evidence that the printers of 16th-century Europe had a true intellectual interest in the books they produced — while Mady works the homefront in an effort to uncover the very proper Louisa May Alcott's secret life as the author of a series of salacious penny-dreadfuls.

Granted, very little of this reads like the stuff of a sprightly musical entertainment, but Houghton and composers Dianne Adams and James McDowell maintain a largely lighthearted touch with a decades-spanning saga — in which the conflict ranges from the girls' chafing at the rules and roles ordained by their old-world German-Jewish families, to the elder Leona's desire to put aside the business she worked so hard to build.

Songs spotlight a recurring theme

Sometimes corny, other times weighted with exposition and didacticism, the songs (Houghton also contributed lyrics) spotlight a recurring theme expressed variously as "Just Look at Him (Her, Us)." Some of the best material is given to secondary and even cameo characters — including "Numbers Make Sense" (performed by Matt Golden as Leona's practical brother Rusty), and a little ditty titled "Fingerspitzengefuhl," sung to Vallancourt by Alan Souza as a smitten fellow researcher.

Jenkins and choreographer Jennifer Paulson Lee have managed a minor miracle of motion within the odd shadow-box dimensions of NJ Rep's stage. The bizarre and colorful "Arab Astrologers" number makes great use of all available space, and "Lucy's Song" is a terrific tune that's as close as this modestly-sized musical gets to a high-kicking showstopper.

It's a show that's not built around the tuneful talents of the leads, and the younger Ms. Bob (working multiple roles, like most of the cast) is a standout in an ensemble that takes on the musical heavy lifting.

Pamela's mom Susan — a Rep regular remembered from last year's "Apostasy" — is an inspired choice as Leona; her sinusy delivery and dry comic instincts enlivening a woman who's come to feel like one of the brittle, age-old volumes that line her shelves. Goldpaugh, a fine stock-company player who starred alongside Bob in "Maggie Rose," is here assigned to the least interesting of the major parts. Her mature Mady is a person of unshowy intelligence and real virtue.

Vallancourt, meanwhile, adds another strong performance to a Rep career that began with her breathtaking work in "October 1962."

(LONG BRANCH, NJ) -- The world premiere of Bookends, a new musical by the team of Katherine Houghton (book and lyrics) and Dianne Adams and James McDowell (music and lyrics) broke new ground for the New Jersey Repertory Company. Not only did it continue its path of producing world class original productions, but it offered a field of over a dozen actors (far greater than their normal casting numbers) and even managed to have everybody on stage singing and dancing at the same time! That's something you rarely see in an intimate space of the size of the Lumia Theatre.

Bookends is based on the true story of Madeleine Stern and Leona Rostenberg who were famous rare book dealers that met as young girls and built a life-long friendship. As the play opens, the pair are now in their 90s and are completing their memoirs. Their lives were anything but dull. In an age where women were expected to simply be dutiful wives, these two resisted conventional notions and let their passion for books become their true love and watched as that romance took them around the world.

There was a bit of irony in seeing the premiere of Bookends on the same weekend as the final Harry Potter book was about to shatter all records for book sales. After all, one of the biggest fears that Leona Rostenberg had in the end was that nobody read books anymore. She was prepared to sell even the books that had the most sentimental value because she was tired of being a dinosaur. I get the feeling that both of them would get a good laugh at hearing how a book - in a period of time when nobody supposedly reads - could sell over eight million copies in a weekend!

Bookends is a musical and I'm not exactly a big fan of most musicals. For me, a musical works if you can take away the music and still have a play. Bookends would certainly work either way. The story of Leona and Madeleine will fascinate anybody who's ever picked up a book for enjoyment. It's a tale that writers will fall in love with as we know that it is people like Leona and Madeleine who have kept literature and physical books alive in an era when words could just as easily been moved to computers.

Yes, there are a few songs that I think the play could have done without, but a few like "Just Look At Us" are magical numbers. As with all NJ REP shows, the cast is phenomonal - especially the two young leads (Jenny Vallancourt as the Young Leona and Robyn Kemp as the Young Mady).

In the end, Bookends is a wonderful play about a beautiful story. It's a story about friendship, hope and dreams, and happy endings. Just like the best books are.

The LINK News July 26 thru August 1, 2007

Entertainment

'Bookends' supports talented cast in entertaining musical
by Milt Bernstein

Three cheers to New Jersey Rep for bringing this delightful new production to Long Branch's Broadway!

"Bookends" I sthe world premiere of a musical based on the lives of two very special real-life women, Madeleine Stern and Leona Rostenberg, who lived and worked in New York for the greater part of the last century. Their business, which they made a success of, was that of rare books dealers. To achieve their goal, they had to overcome the many rules and traditions of the families they were brought up in, and resist the offers of marriage that came their way.

This musical portrayal of their lives is a thoroughly winning and heart-warming production sure to win our admiration and affection.

The play switches back and forth from conversations between the two women as the nonagenarians they have become, and flashbacks to their eager youth; their meeting each other and beginning their lifelong friendship; and the subsequent challenges and difficulties they each encounter before they finally find the strength and resolve to live the lives they have chosen, in spite of convention.

The play is the brain-child of the well-known actress and playwright Katharine Houghton, who has been represented before at New Jersey Rep, and who happens to be the niece of the late, great Katharine Hepburn, and co-starred with her in the prize-winning film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." Houghton wrote the musical's book and some of the lyrics to the many numbers. The rest of the lyrics and the lovely musical pieces were by Dianne Adams and James McDowell.

The large cast is headed by Susan G. Bob and Kathleen Goldpaugh, both veterans of previous NJ Rep productions, as the two elderly women, Leona and Madeleine; with Jenny Vallancourt and Robyn Kemp, radiating their exuberance touchingly, as young Leona and young Mady, respectively; and Eric Collins and Matt Golden as youthful suitors of the two young women.

Except for the parts of older and younger Leonas and Madeleines, everyone in the cast plays a variety of roles as well as being part of the ensemble numbers. Special note should be made of Pamela Bob (Susan's daughter) who sang and performed two spectacular numbers, one in each act; and Alan Souza, who portrays a married, father-of-six, official in Strasbourg, Germany, and tries to seduce young Leona in a hilarious number called "Fingerspitzengefuhl."

The play has been skillfully directed by Ken Jenkins. (He is also Dr. Kelso on the popular TV series "Scrubs.")

To quote Gabe Barabas, the executive producer at NJ Rep, "you no longer have to travel to Broadway in New York to see a new musical. You can go to Broadway in Long Branch."

Performances of this must-see show will continue through August 26.

NEW JERSEY STAGE

Some teens who graduated from high school in June are still searching for a summer job. Jenny Vallancourt learned what hers would be months ago.

After getting her diploma from Middletown High School South -- and before heading off to Barnard College this fall -- the Red Bank resident knew she'd be starring in a musical. She's playing rare-book dealer Leona Rostenberg in "Bookends," which has its world premiere Friday night at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.

The musical is based on the same-titled autobiography written by Rostenberg with her professional partner, Madeleine B. Stern.

"They met when they were kids," says Vallancourt. "They were constantly discouraged by their families. 'You're only a woman,' they were told. 'You can't open a business. You should just get married and let your husband work.' They wanted more than that, and had to work together to achieve it."

The two stayed friends until Rostenberg died in 2005 at 96. Stern is now 95. "I play Leona from the ages of 10 to 30," says the 18-year-old Vallancourt. "She's smart but shy, but funny, too."

That would describe Vallancourt as well. Like Rostenberg, she's an inveterate reader. She's just started "The Blind Assassin," her third Margaret Atwood novel. "I love reading before I go to sleep," she says. "I feel it's got to be better for me to read than watch movies or TV."

Vallancourt got the part after one quick audition and call-back. "My mother called me when I was in gym class to tell me the news," says the teen, beaming but blushing, too.

Vallancourt's history with New Jersey Repertory Company certainly didn't hurt. She took acting classes there, and was cast in last winter's premiere of "October 1962." As Jean, a teen who senses that her parents' marriage is in terrible trouble, she gave one of the most dynamic performances of the season.

For someone so young, Vallancourt has had a great deal of experience.

"I didn't even think I could audition for 'Bookends' because I was busy doing 'Chess' at my school," she says. It was one of many leads she had there -- when she wasn't working in community theater in Matawan, Shrewsbury and Sandy Hook. She's done more than two dozen shows in those towns.

If that weren't enough, Vallancourt is already a produced playwright. Last year, the Young Playwrights Festival in Madison staged "Birdhouse in Your Soul," her 10-minute play.

"It's about two brothers," she says. "The 17-year-old has to baby-sit the 12-year-old. The younger one is creative, and the older one is normal," she adds, hooking her fingers into quotation marks to show she isn't quite on the side of conventionality. "The older one is jealous that his brother is the free one."

It's not autobiographical, for Vallancourt is the oldest of three girls.

"I was assigned two kids in class to act the play, so I thought about what they were like, and that's what made me write the way I did," she says, showing the instincts of a professional playwright.

Asked when it all started for her, Vallancourt says, "'Beauty and the Beast,' when I was real young. I loved the movie, then my grandmother took me to see it on Broadway. Pretty soon after, I was doing my own version in my backyard."

That the musical is about a girl who loved books isn't lost on her. "That's a pretty good sign for 'Bookends,' isn't it?" she asks, smiling.

THEATER NOTES

"Scrubs" star directs musical in Long Branch

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 07/20/07

BY TOM CHESEK
CORRESPONDENT

All in all, it's a great time to be Ken Jenkins. With more than a half century of dedicated endeavor in all aspects of his craft, the veteran actor/producer/director has become something of a teen idol, thanks to his co-starring role as Dr. Bob Kelso in the NBC comedy "Scrubs." The quirky, hospital-set ensemble show is followed by a fervent fanbase that Jenkins figures to center around "medical students, surgeons — and 13- to 15-year-olds."

"Teenagers run up and introduce themselves, sticking out their hand, all very proper," the 66-year-old star says with a laugh. "At my age, for kids to think I'm cool is really something."

While the self-described "old character man" has nothing but praise for the series that first aired in 2001 — observing that "the acting and the writing have grown better and better" — the boards of the legitimate stage have remained his primary beat. It's an ongoing passion that brings Jenkins to the Jersey Shore this weekend as director of "Bookends," a new musical play now in its world premiere engagement at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch.

A song-filled study of the extraordinary relationship between two very remarkable real-life women, "Bookends" is a project that's grown out of another extraordinary relationship of long standing — that of Jenkins and his wife of 37 years, the actress and playwright Katharine Houghton.

Married since 1970, Jenkins and Houghton were first teamed in the roles of "loving adversaries" Kate and Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew" and went on to play everything from brother and sister (in "The Glass Menagerie") to father and daughter (in "Major Barbara").

With the formation of their own Pilgrim Repertory Company, the couple brought classical theater and "ragtag bits of Shakespeare" to remote rural communities, facilities for the hearing-impaired, and other places that were as far off-Broadway as could be imagined.

"Some kids in rural Kentucky had a better innate understanding of Shakespeare than we did," recalls Jenkins of his days in what Houghton calls "arts missionary work." "If you listened, you could hear leftover bits of Elizabethan accents in the way they spoke."

Best known for her role in the provocative, Academy Award-winning film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" — a classic in which she starred alongside Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and her aunt Katharine Hepburn — Houghton is an acclaimed author whose portfolio boasts an eclectic olio of short playlets, full-length works, translations and even one-woman presentations on cultural and literary topics.

It was while doing research for a piece on Louisa May Alcott that Houghton was introduced to a pair of antiquarian book dealers named Madeleine "Mady" Stern and Leona Rostenberg. Friends since childhood, the two women defied the conventional expectations of their old-world German-Jewish families to become highly educated experts on a variety of subjects, traveling the world and building a successful business in an ultra-specialized field. Drawn to Mady and Leona's warmth, energy and passion for life, Houghton befriended the pair as they entered their tenth decades — and somewhere, somehow, the concept for a musical was born.

"What those two did just makes your jaw drop," says Jenkins of the play's protagonists, whom he had the privilege of knowing personally. "I'm in awe of what they accomplished as women in a man's world."

While the subject matter might seem an oddball choice for a musical, Jenkins sees their shared saga as a very uplifting, human story of triumph, set against the changing cultural landscape of a tumultuous and eventful century.

"They were the most intellectually active people each other had ever known," the director says of Mady and Leona (who has since passed away). "Their lives were like a string of jewels . . . they're like Shakespearean characters."

Portraying Mady and Leona as adults are a couple of NJ Rep company regulars, Susan G. Bob and Kathleen Goldpaugh. Also on hand in the large ensemble is one of the youngest members of the stock company, Jenny Vallancourt, who excelled in last year's "October 1962" and appears here as Mady in flashbacks. Dianne Adams and James McDowell composed the music and lyrics in collaboration with Houghton, with Adams serving as musical director and Jennifer Paulson Lee handling the choreography.

Director Jenkins, for his part, seems ecstatic to be spending his series hiatus on this obvious labor of love, enthusing that audiences "will be proud of their humanity when they see this show . . . you'll laugh, cry, go home and talk about it and decide that being human is a good thing after all."

Spunky nonagenarians who collect fragile tomes and speak half a dozen languages are hardly your typical musical-theatre heroines. That’s exactly the point, says Houghton: “They were expected to have a conventional life—the drama is that they didn’t.”

Both Stern (still vital at 95) and Rostenberg (who died two years ago) participated in the show’s development. The plot hinges on a present-day argument between the women—played by actresses in their fifties, says Houghton, “because that’s the kind of energy they have”—about whether to retire. The debate is punctuated with scenes of their younger selves navigating tricky affairs of business and the heart.

At times, the exotic topics the women have studied in books—from Arab astrologers to Mary Magdalene—come alive in whimsical song-and-dance sequences to comment on their life choices. But Houghton selected her composers above all for their ability to set inner monologues to music that tugs at the emotions. “It really wouldn’t matter if it were about rare books or something else,” says Houghton. “It’s about having a passion and finding a way to realize it.” —Nicole Estvanik

KATHARINE HOUGHTON ON BOOKENDS

by Gary Wien

NJ Repertory Company in Long Branch presents another world premiere play this month. This time around it's a musical called BOOKENDS written by the playwright/actress Katharine Houghton.

Katharine Houghton is best known for her role as Joanna "Joey" Drayton, the Caucasian ingenue with an African-American fiance, whom she brings home to meet her parents, in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

Her list of other films include Ethan Frome, Mr. North, The Night We Never Met, Billy Bathgate, The Gardener and Let it Be You. Katharine has appeared on Broadway in Our Town, The Front Page and A Very Rich Woman. Her regional theatre credits include roles in over fifty productions. Her play Buddha, was published in Best Short Plays of 1988. Other plays that have been produced include Merlin, The Merry Month of May, Mortal Friends, On the Shadyside, The Right Number and Phone Play. Her newest play, Only Angels, is in development in New York.

Houghton was named after her maternal grandmother Katharine Hepburn.

Tell me a little about BOOKENDS, What is the play about?
BOOKENDS is a musical for anyone of any age who has ever had a raging dream to do something or be someone unusual and who has been told it is impossible. The songs derive from the passions of all the warring hearts and competing agendas - each one sure of what it means to live life fully. No one is right, no one is wrong, but the secret of life is to find your own unique path and travel it with joyful perseverance.

The story, which is true but not about me, revolves around two women, Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern. Two plots intertwine. One concerns the women in old age, the other concerns their youth. The problem of the seniors - one wants to quit their almost 60 year business in antiquarian books, the other doesn't. Their argument invokes scenes from their past that are relevant to their present situation, and by reliving those scenes of their salad days, it sets the stage for their ultimate solution. This is not a play concerned with nostalgia.

BOOKENDS seems pretty ambitious - it has a relatively large cast for a musical that revolves around two girls. Do the other actors have significant roles or are they more for the soundtrack?
The musical is madly ambitious and we are all insane to try it, especially with only 3 weeks of rehearsal and 1 week of tech, but we felt it was worth a go. It has a cast of 14, all wonderful singers and actors. Except for the older and younger Madys & Leonas, everyone plays a variety of important roles and everyone has at least one terrific song, as well as being part of several wonderful ensemble numbers.

What led you decide to make this a musical?
I decided to make this story a musical because I've known Madeleine and Leona well for over 20 years and I've always felt that their story was a story for our time. Women are still trying to find their way in a man's world and these two women did it with glory. They came of age in the 30s in my beloved Manhattan, but the challenges and put-downs they experienced are still felt by women today. An example: well respected director Emily Mann, currently based in Princeton, NJ, I believe, was told by her professors at Harvard in 1974 that she could never direct for professional theatre or film because she was a woman, that she would have to confine her efforts to children's theatre. Fortunately she was not deterred.

By making BOOKENDS a musical instead of a play it allows me to use the songs to reveal secret thoughts and feelings in a way that I hope will be entertaining as well as affecting.

I am hoping that a musical about charming, humorous, conquering women will have an audience - an audience of both women and the men who love them.

Have you written a musical before?
In the 80s when I was doing a lot of writing for the fabulous Downstairs Theatre Bar at the Westbank Cafe on 42nd St. I wrote a one act musical based on an O'Henry short story called The Merry Month Of May. Other than that I've written only plays and screenplays

Finally, it's always wonderful when you have a film like Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? on your resume but I was wondering if it ever bothered you that your best known film was your first?
I suppose if I'd done nothing after Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, it would be a sort of thorn in my side that it is for most people my best known work. But after that film I spent 15 years in the wonderful regional theatres of America playing over 50 leading roles in classical drama.

Also, with Ken Jenkins, who is directing BOOKENDS and who is currently best known for his six seasons on NBC's cult hit comedy, "Scrubs", playing Dr. Kelso, I ran a theatre company for 13 years called Pilgrim Repertory Co. We toured several works all around, especially to places that didn't have the opportunity to see live theatre. We called it our "Arts Missionary Work." Ken wrote a pastiche called Shakespeare For Lovers And Others, which was one of our most popular productions. We made all our own sets, costumes, props etc. as well as acting all the parts. It was colossal good fun.

I guess that was just my destiny. And hanging out with all those brilliant writers, from Shakespeare and Shaw to Williams and O'Neill, no doubt had some small effect on my playwrighting.

A template for the new woman
Playwright celebrates two extraordinary friends in 'Bookends'
BY TOM CHESEK
Correspondent

Katharine Houghton

Katharine Houghton has had the honor of knowing some extraordinary women in her time, many of them no further away than her own formidable family tree.

For instance, her grandmother, the ardent suffragist and philanthropist Katharine Houghton Hepburn, was instrumental in founding Planned Parenthood with Margaret Sanger in the 1950s.

And then there was her aunt, the dynamic, iconic Katharine Hepburn, alongside whom she starred in 1967's Best Picture, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" Although she has expressed some disappointment over the excising of a key scene (in which her character, "Joey," defends her relationship with her black fiancé to her supposedly liberal dad), Houghton remains "very proud" of that movie debut, one in which she kept pace with such screen heavyweights as Aunt Kate, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and director Stanley Kramer.

While she has remained intermittently visible on film (most recently in "Kinsey" starring Liam Neeson, with whom she also appeared in "Ethan Frome"), it's on the stage that Houghton the actress has turned in her most acclaimed work, with a lauded performance in the 1969 "Scent of Flowers," and a portfolio of leads in classics by the likes of Shakespeare ("Taming of the Shrew," "The Merchant of Venice"), Chekhov ("Uncle Vanya," "The Seagull") and Ibsen ("A Doll's House").

A scene from "Bookends," written by Katharine Houghton.

"I kept getting offered fabulous roles in the burgeoning regional theaters, and so I decamped from Hollywood to play over 50 leading roles in the classics.

"It was my destiny, I think, to be a stage, rather than a film, actress, if there is such a thing as destiny."

Along the way, the actress evolved into the playwright, having penned numerous award-winning shorts and full-length plays, among them "Merlin," "Mortal Friends," a translation of Anouilh's "Antigone," and "Best Kept Secret," an autobiographical study of a 1960s love affair with a Soviet artist.

The author shared her "Secret" on the stage of New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch with a 2001 reading and, beginning this weekend, Houghton returns to NJ Rep for the fully staged, world premiere engagement of "Bookends," her first long-form musical endeavor and a labor of love that has its roots in an extraordinary relationship.

Featuring songs by the composing team of Dianne Adams and James McDowell, "Bookends" is a melodic meditation on the long professional partnership and enduring friendship of two real-life women, Madeleine "Mady" Stern and the late Leona Rostenberg.

Houghton made the acquaintance of the noted rare-book dealers while researching her own narrated presentation on the life and work of "Little Women" author Louisa May Alcott, and immediately became intrigued by these energetic, educated New York originals, then approaching their 90s and marking more than a half-century of shared business and adventures.

While an all-singing, all-dancing musical about elderly antiquarian booksellers might seem at first like something out of Max Bialystock's playbook, Houghton sets the action at various times in her subjects' lives, from their days growing up in strict German-Jewish families to their debates over retirement.

A colossal (by local professional standards) cast of 14 is headed by Rep regulars Susan G. Bob and Kathleen Goldpaugh as the adult Mady and Leona, and features Jenny Vallancourt, a young performer who made a big impression in NJ Rep's "October 1962" earlier this season.

"If you had known Mady and Leona in their 90-year-old prime, you would understand why we are not playing them as old ladies," Houghton explains. "They were ageless, unique, and to play them as old ladies would be a travesty.

"I was less interested in my relationship with the ladies and more interested in their lives as a template for the 'new woman,' a creature Mother Nature has been striving to create since Mary Wollstonecraft blasted the old female paradigms," the author continues. "We're not there yet, but we've made progress, and Rostenberg and Stern are a major example of these advancements."

Directing "Bookends" is a man with whom Houghton has maintained her own long-term personal and professional partnership, Ken Jenkins, Houghton's husband of 37 years and a newly minted household name, thanks to his role as Dr. Bob Kelso on the hit NBC TV series "Scrubs."

While the 66-year-old actor has plenty of good things to say about the popular vehicle that's garnered him instant recognition from teenage fans, "Bookends" remains a project with which he has been personally engaged from the outset, and the latest chapter in an ongoing collaboration that has taken the two dedicated stage pros to some pretty amazing places.

As Houghton says of Jenkins, whom she first met and worked with when she was 23, "He taught me everything I know about acting in the old days, and any young actor who works with him is bound to benefit from his almost 50 years of nonstop experience in the theater.

"Ken directed my first play, and we have acted together on many occasions - brother and sister in 'The Glass Menagerie,' father and daughter in 'Major Barbara,' loving adversaries in 'The Taming of the Shrew,' and on and on."

An important early project for Houghton and Jenkins was their formation of Pilgrim Repertory Company, a federally funded traveling troupe that brought live theater to Appalachia and other rural areas underserved by arts organizations, an endeavor she likens to "arts missionary work."

"We performed in log cabins, in fields and forests, in insane asylums; 'Richard III' was a great favorite in the latter," Houghton recalls. "It was thrilling … a trial by fire."

Having determined that her "Bookends" project might work well in musical form, Houghton "found my sound" and forged a new and productive partnership when she happened to attend a Broadway adaptation of the children's classic "The Wind in the Willows" scored by the team of Adams and McDowell.

"I didn't want the music to be rock, pop or too intellectual," explains the playwright, who contributed lyrics in addition to the show's book. "I wanted the music to seduce the heart and amuse the soul."

By Kenneth Jones 20 Jun 2007

Ken Jenkins
NBC

Bookends, a new musical by Katharine Houghton, Dianne Adams and James McDowell, will make its world premiere in a staging by The New Jersey Repertory Company July 19.

Ken Jenkins, the actor widely known as the senior doctor on TV's "Scrubs," will direct the show, which concerns nonagenarian ladies — and longtime friends — who look back on their lives. The librettist and co-lyricist Houghton is the admired actress who played the daughter in the film, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," among many roles in her career. (She is also Katharine Hepburn's niece.)

Music and co-lyrics are by Dianne Adams and James McDowell. Music direction is by Adams.

According to NJ Rep, "Bookends is the story of Madeleine Stern and Leona Rostenberg, celebrated rare book dealers, who met as young girls and forged a life-long friendship. Both in their 90s when the play opens, the women are compiling their memoirs. Flashbacks to their youth reveal them as two outspoken girls growing up in conventional families in Manhattan in the 1930s, where they are expected to marry, have children, and live close to home. But obsessed by their unusual passion for old and rare books, they resist convention to follow their dream, one that takes them on adventures all over the world and reveals to them 2,000 years of human folly, wisdom, mystery and serendipity. Based on a true story, this hauntingly beautiful musical will stay with you forever."

The cast will include Pamela Bob, Susan G. Bob, Eric Collins, Matt Golden, Kathleen Goldpaugh, Robyn Kemp, Robert Lewandowski, Howard Pinhasik, Alan Souza, Eileen Tepper, Amie Bermowitz, Jenny Vallancourt and Rebecca Weiner.

Gabor Barabas, the executive producer at New Jersey Rep, stated, "We selected Bookends from a submission of over a thousand scripts that we receive each year not only because a new musical is a rare creation, but because we were drawn to the lushness of the music, and to the humor, dramatic tension, and beauty of the play. Bookends will provide local audiences with the rare opportunity of witnessing the birth of a musical. And keep in mind, you no longer have to travel to Broadway in New York to see a new musical. You can go to Broadway in Long Branch."

The creative team includes Henry Aronson (piano), Rose Riccardi (stage manager), Jennifer Paulson Lee (choreographer), Charles Corcoran (scenic design), Jill Nagle (lighting design), Patricia E. Doherty (costume design), Jessica Parks (properties), Jessica Paz (sound design) and Quinn K. Stone (technical director).

No secrets in N.J. Repertory's New Year's comedy

STAR-LEDGER

NEW JERSEY STAGE

BY PETER FILICHIA
STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Remember Y2K?

It crosses the minds of all six characters who are celebrating New Year's Eve 1999 in "Place Setting." Jack Canfora's funny and fascinating play, at the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch , soon shows that these people had nothing to fear.

Not from a computer meltdown, anyway. They certainly have plenty to worry about as secret after secret is revealed. They pile on so high that the play rivals a soap opera for the sheer number of complications.

What separates "Place Setting" from daytime TV, though, is that Canfora has wonderfully incisive wit -- and he tells the truth about how 21st century men and women view relationships and marriages.

Andrea and Greg are the evening's hosts. Laura, Andrea's sister, has brought her terribly pretentious German filmmaker boyfriend, Richard. He's furious that Laura has taken him out of the city and to -- horrors! -- the New Jersey suburbs. (Many plays have Jersey jokes. This one has Jersey insults.)

Also on hand are Lenny -- Greg's brother -- and his longtime girlfriend, Charlotte. Andrea surmised Lenny would buy Charlotte an engagement ring for Christmas; that didn't happen, but Charlotte doesn't seem concerned.

When the audience discovers why, the play kicks into high gear. Evan Bergman's skillful and secure direction is one reason, but Canfora left nothing to chance. He's full of fresh-sounding lines for his characters: "Your marriage is a china shop waiting for a bull." "I have an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever I do the right thing." "I look at the best moments of my life and realize that none of them were good for me."

Plenty of truths emerge in the two-hour play because "in vodka veritas.''

The second act, which takes place the morning after, is slower in feel, as hangovers take their toll. Canfora keeps the dialogue clear-eyed as he examines the ramifications of lust in one's heart (and other places). He doesn't flinch from pointing out that spouses are disappointed by those they marry, because day-to-day life forces one to know a mate far too well.

Canfora's in the play, too, and makes an affable Greg. Carol Todd gives an exceptionally unmannered performance as Andrea, the model homemaker. (Jessica Parks gives her handsome set on which to ply her trade.) Todd is magnificent when she offers a startlingly different point of view on loyalty in marriage.

As Laura, Kristen Moser does beautifully with a speech in which she learns that if she gets a tattoo, laser surgery can remove it easily and without scarring. Just like marriage, she realizes; nothing is permanent these days.

Peter Macklin has the right insufferable qualities for Richard, and adds a pungent accent. Lenny is a character who must run through a gantlet of emotions, and David Bishins succeeds at every signpost. Guenia Lemos impressively captures Charlotte 's many amoral qualities.

En route, there's some talk about New Year's resolutions. Theatergoers who didn't make any should resolve now to see "Place Setting."

Table Setting, the world premiere comedy-drama at New Jersey Rep, is set on December 31, 1999. The setting is the kitchen and dining room of the comfortable, middle class New Jersey home of Greg and his wife, Andrea. The acerbic Greg, who had ambitions to be a writer, is an ad writer. Less sharp, but pleasanter Andrea is a distractingly fussy housewife (I've heard that last word objected to by one who said that it wrongly one as being married to a house. If that is true, then it aptly describes Andrea).

Two other couples are with them for a family dinner prior to the expected arrival of additional guests. Greg's close, less acerbic brother Lenny is accompanied by his sharp-looking girlfriend Charlotte. Lenny identifies himself as being in "human resources," and Charlotte is an assistant editor. Andrea's sister Laura, an East Village, counter-culture type, has brought along her new boyfriend Richard, a pretentious, pompously assured purveyor of misinformation who identifies himself as an independent film director.

It appears apparent from this set-up that feuds and crises will comprise the entire play. And, in that respect, author Jack Canfora delivers that which is expected. The major crisis is that Charlotte is in the process of seducing the sorely tempted Greg into leaving Andrea. Matters are further complicated when Lenny proposes to Charlotte and takes her evasion of an answer as a "yes".

Table Setting boasts sharp, crisp, and richly humorous dialogue. Its story and recognizable characters engage our interest and emotions throughout (even though most of the characters are supremely selfish).

There is much food for thought here, largely concerning the complex nature of marital relationships. Author Canfora seems to suggest that settling for less than everything that one wants in a marriage is terribly sad, and that all marital issues need be confronted and worked out.

Author Jack Canfora portrays Greg with a boyish likeability. Canfora has given himself the lion's share of the play's barbed one liners (after all, Greg is an acerbic wise guy), and his comic timing and phrasing make the most of them. Carol Todd brings a great deal of honesty and nuance. Her Andrea is properly a mite annoying, yet gains sympathy for her determined actions. (The motivation for her launching a missile at Lenny is unclear and does undermine our sympathy for her. However, I think that it is the author who has some work to do here.)

David Bishins as Lenny runs the table believably, delivering a full range of emotional colors. Guenia Lemos performs with a easy and likeable sensuality. Given that Charlotte is most coldly selfish (to Greg – "Your brothers going to be betrayed and your wife broken, and it doesn't matter"), Lemos has to perform with tremendous appeal to enable us to accept Greg's temptation. Lemos has one especially clever line, "Your marriage is like a china shop, waiting for a bull." Kristen Moser has a likeable, slightly ditzy take on Laura, and Peter Macklin is deadpan funny as Richard. I couldn't quite identify his accent, but that may have been intentional for this phony filmmaker.

Director Evan Bergman has kept a lively pace, directed traffic well, and elicited fine performances all around. The richly detailed (with a fully loaded kitchen), and most attractive and playable set is by Jessica Parks. The excellent costumes by Patricia E. Doherty are especially effective in conveying the differing styles of the women and are flattering to boot.

Place Setting is neither unconventional nor particularly original, but it does provide witty, involving and thought provoking entertainment.

Reviewed by Frank J. Avella; newyorkcool.com

 
New Jersey Rep has taken another chance, and it has paid off in an incisive and penetrating new play written by Jack Canfora.

Set on the eve of the new millennium (the much-ballyhoo’d 1999 into 2000, not the real new millennium for those geeks who care), Place Setting focuses on a dinner party and it’s aftermath. The bash is tossed by a freakishly controlling Andrea (Carol Todd) and her henpecked husband Greg (the playwright Jack Canfora). Andrea’s spunky and verbose sister Laura (Kristen Moser) is in attendance with her pretentious German filmmaker-wannabe beau Richard (a hilarious Peter Maclin). Rounding out the ‘table’ are Greg’s sweet but dull brother Lenny (David Bishins) and his stunning girlfriend Charlotte (Guenia Lemos).

As the witty barbs fly, we become privy to the fact that Greg and Charlotte are secretly in love. This revelation is the springboard for the rest of the play’s action.

Nicely directed by Evan Bergman, Place Setting cleverly manages to touch on some very important and universal themes such as the need for passion in one’s life vs. the allure of complacency and stagnation. Fears are exposed, marital and otherwise and Canfora balances the comedy and drama with ease. And his love of film comes through as well, which made this critic gleeful.

Kristin Moser stands out in a stellar cast. Her Laura is filled with anger, resentment and longing (and we can understand why she is so bitter once we spend a bit of time with her sister Andrea!) Moser is killer with comedy yet handles the more poignant and dramatic moments with equal conviction. She basically steals every scene she is in. Someone get this gal a sitcom!

The Andrea character is difficult to stomach, partly because she’s a calculating and manipulative bitch, partly because she’s trying to hold on to something the audience feels she has no right having. Todd does a fine job with her and even manages to eke out some sympathy from us.

Canfora wears both hats quite impressively. I had no idea that the funny and charismatic actor onstage had also written the play. There’s nothing showy about his performance.

Lemos’ Charlotte is a feisty, desperate figure who craves love and passion. The play, unfortunately, does her a great disservice by making her disappear completely in Act Two, yet tosses out quite damaging character dialogue that Charlotte is never allowed to address. Consequently, Lemos’ rich performance is undercut once we are led to believe she’s a vamp.

My only complaint is with the very final moment of the play where Andrea does something so very against her character, it pulled me out. Otherwise the play and