‘OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR’: Linda Lavin & John Procaccino. Photo: Joan Marcus

OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR
By Richard Greenberg
Directed by Lynne Meadow
Through March 6, 2016
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6290), http://ourmothersbriefaffairbroadway.com/

By Scott Harrah

Linda Lavin should have a patent on “how to play a Jewish mother” because no one does it better on the stage. Ms. Lavin has portrayed strong mothers in countless roles and she’s certainly at the top of her game in Richard Greenberg’s paper-thin new drama. In fact, Ms. Lavin is so outstanding in both her command of the stage and razor-sharp delivery of lines that we almost overlook Mr. Greenberg’s hollow, uneven narrative.

The premise of the story is simple yet convoluted. Ms. Lavin plays Anna Cantor, a widowed Long Island woman who’s supposedly near death. The problem is, Anna has told her kids that she’s “dying” many times before. Twins Seth (Greg Keller), an obituary writer, and sister Abby (Kate Arrington), a California librarian, have traveled to mom’s bedside in New York.

Anna drops a bombshell: She supposedly had an affair back in the 1970s with Phil (John Proccacino) while Seth was a teenager studying music at Juilliard. The plot thickens when Anna reveals that Phil was actually involved in an infamous national security scandal back in the 1950s –or was he?

Seth and Abby aren’t sure if Anna, suffering from Alzheimer’s, is telling the truth or making the whole thing up. Most of the play’s tension is based on the two children trying to determine why their mother is revealing this now, as she’s supposedly dying. Nearly all the action centers on episodic flashbacks of Anna and Phil’s surreptitious meetings circa 1973, with Seth and Abby popping in to ask their mother questions about her alleged affair. While the dialogue is crisp and snappy at times, with Ms. Lavin firing off Yiddish words and phrases with aplomb and getting many laughs from the audience, everything grows tiresome and repetitious.

Narrative point-of-view and a story’s setting are crucial in any stage play. In a film or novel, flashbacks can work well because there are no constraints on time and place, but using them on the stage is tricky indeed. Mr. Greenberg spends far too much time relying on Anna’s flashbacks to advance the action.

The characters of Seth and Abby aren’t terribly interesting either. Both are twins and gay, but we learn little about them other than how Seth can’t find love and Abby, who has a child, feels her relationship with her partner is becoming routine and dull. Perhaps there would be more of a solid drama here we if knew more about the twins’ back story and what makes them tick.

Lynne Meadow does her best directing the cast, and again Ms. Lavin is exquisite, but no director could “fix” a drama with this many structural issues. Our Mother’s Brief Affair might be more satisfying as a 90-minute one act, but as is, it’s a tough slog to sit through, especially since act two is completely unnecessary. Ultimately, this is one tepid “affair” that’s mostly forgettable.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published January 22, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on January 21, 2016

‘OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR’: Linda Lavin & John Procaccino. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR’: Greg Keller & Linda Lavin. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR’: Kate Arrington & Greg Keller. Photo: Joan Marcus

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DIVA & HER DAUGHTER: Linda Lavin & Jennifer Westfeldt in ‘Too Much Sun.’ Photo: Carol Rosegg

TOO MUCH SUN
Written by Nicky Silver
Directed by Mark Brokaw
Through June 22, 2014
Vineyard Theatre
108 East 15th Street
(212 353-0303), www.vineyardtheatre.org

By Scott Harrah

Prolific Off-Broadway playwright Nicky Silver has been compared to everyone from Oscar Wilde and Joe Orton to Christopher Durang because, like those men of theatrical letters, Mr. Silver writes dark farces with crisp, whimsical dialogue for larger-than-life characters, twisting around clichés about parents and their offspring, in an attempt to understand the complexities of family. There is a lot of Wildean wit indeed and shades of Noël Coward in Too Much Sun, one of Mr. Silver’s most simplistic and funniest plays to date.

It may sound silly to say the legendary Linda Lavin is his muse, but this is the second Nicky Silver play in which she stars, and she’s never been more wonderfully acerbic. Like her character in Mr. Silver’s first Broadway show, The Lyons (for which she received a Tony nomination), Ms. Lavin once again plays a demanding but unorthodox Jewish mother. Here she is also a thespian, but Ms. Lavin’s Audrey is no Sara Bernhardt and not exactly a nurturing mom, either.  Ms. Lavin knows how to deftly extract every drop of demanding-diva spunk from her character, the outrageous aging actress Audrey Langham, for well-earned laughs. In the prologue, Audrey is having a breakdown while in a Chicago rehearsal for Medea. She is absurdly made up, kvetching over everything she despises about the show to her director, particularly the too-glamorous, colorful Medea gown she’s forced to wear. “I feel like I walked out of The Radio City Christmas Spectacular,” she groans.

The action then segues to a seaside cottage on Cape Cod, as Audrey’s daughter, Kitty (Jennifer Westfeldt) and her 40-year-old husband, an advertising man/wannabe novelist, Dennis (Ken Barnett), are dealing with her mom’s arrival.  Dennis has come to the Cape to finally write a sci-fi novel, while Kitty is a bundle of nerves over how she’s going to cope with her mother’s visit.

They have unusual year-round neighbors: Lucas (Matt Dickson), a carefree, gay marijuana dealer planning to go to UCLA in the fall, and currently living with his father, Winston (Richard Bekins), a well-to-do widower who is obsessed with India and the romance of the British Raj.

Everyone on this particular “Cape of Good Hope” is under the bewitching spell of summer, when expectations in the breezy Massachusetts sun run high as people shed inhibitions and secrets are divulged. The characters are exaggerated but never one-dimensional, and Too Much Sun mines a lot of irony from stereotypes and the dysfunctional essence of modern American families.  When Audrey finally appears, she announces that she’s quit Medea, and she is the only one in the group who genuinely knows what she wants. Her arrival sets off a series of events, with funny but often predictable results.

In Nicky Silver’s mirthfully insane world, everyone is pretending to be carefree, yet somehow they are not. The characters are wrapped up in the make-believe of summer, when the temperature, emotions and hormones all make them irrational in the heat.  Kitty and Dennis appear to be happy, while Lucas wants everyone to believe he is satisfied being a dope dealer. Also present is Gil (Matt Dellapina), the high-strung assistant to Audrey’s agent. Meanwhile, Gil is there to persuade Audrey to return to Chicago and Medea.  As in most Nicky Silver plays, there is the standard gay twist.

Mr. Silver’s narrative delves into comedy, soap opera and drama all at once, and audiences of a certain age will appreciate jokes ranging from digs at Aldo Ray (remember him?) and Jacqueline Susann to industry zingers about Tennessee Williams and the theater in general.

Director Mark Brokaw extracts outstanding performances from the gifted ensemble.  Jennifer Westfeldt gives a poignant portrayal of Kitty, a woman who has been frustrated by her mother for years.  As Dennis, Ken Barnett is remarkable as a man going through the proverbial midlife crisis.  Matt Dickson imbues young Lucas with the right mix of youthful glee, inner turmoil and rebelliousness. Richard Bekins has an air of quiet dignity and wistfulness as Winston, and Matt Dellapina has sharp comic timing as the lovable nebbish, Gil.

Too Much Sun is not a perfect play, as the ending feels contrived. Yet it would be petty to fault the show over Mr. Silver’s epilogue. As lighthearted fare, there’s plenty of crackling dialogue and enough feel-good spirit to delight audiences all summer long.

NOT YOUR TYPICAL JEWISH MOTHER: Linda Lavin in ‘Too Much Sun.’ Photo: Carol Rosegg

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 18, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on May 17, 2014

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