If theatergoers missed what I saw last weekend at the Little Theatre of Alexandria, I am certain few seats will remain after word hits the street about “Lost in Yonkers.”
It’s that good of a show; it’s great! It’s fab!
It’s 1942 and two young teen boys have been left in the care of their mean and spiteful grandmother whose dad has left them temporarily while he goes off on a new traveling job to earn money to pay off their deceased mom’s medical bills.
That neither Arty (Benjamin Gorini) nor Jay (Jacob Perlman) shows much emotion or distress over the loss of their mother is a surprising omission from the script, but the distraction and reality of living with their angry grandmother weighs uppermost in their minds.
The two boys often trade fast verbal jabs and never miss a cue although Arty’s words are sometime garbled in his fast delivery.
As the older and more mature of the boys, Jay is naturally more commanding, demonstrated by dominance in many of the dialogues with his younger brother.
Not long after the boys move in, we are introduced to their beautiful and light hearted Aunt Bella (Sarah Cusenza) who lives with Grandmother.
Bella is an animated ray of sunshine, but a mentally challenged grownup with a childlike optimism and outlook who stands in sharp contrast to what we visualize as the dark and grey archetypal grandma (Sally Cusenza, Sarah’s mother in real life!).
Bella has a big secret to share if the boys promise to keep it to themselves. They promise. And away she goes to steal the show.
But where is grandma?
We wait and we wait for her appearance, anxiety building until… at last!
Later comes a man in black, the boys’ Uncle Louie (Brian Jimenez and Robert J. Ryley on different nights) a mobster who’s got problems of his own; who doesn’t?
And here arrives still later, for a few minutes, at least, the hilarious Aunt Gert (Teresa Preston) whose speech impediment we really should not laugh at (Grandmother has caused it all), but my! How funny Gert is!
But will their dad ever return?
Joel Durgavich is Eddie, the boys’ nervous and weak father, his own problems springing from his mother (the root of most of her children’s problems).
Grandmother, a strict German, has problems of her own, deep problems.
Not all is gloom and doom though since many lines throughout the show jolt the audience into howls of laughter. (Really.)
Ari McSherry’s lighting is always on cue, illuminating a phone booth or another rectangle when Eddie appears on an otherwise darkened stage in the corner to communicate sporadically to his sons from his transitory spots in the South to give updates on his whereabouts and status.
The show by Neil Simon (1927-2018) is loosely based on Simon’s unhappy childhood in New York City where he grew up with his brother and constantly fighting parents. His father would sometimes leave the family for months at a time and the boys had to go live with relatives.
To escape the stress, Simon went to movies, lots of movies, and decided he wanted to make people laugh when he grew up.
And do he did and does.
Chantale Plante is the director of this outstanding play which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards for Best Play in 1991.
Farrell Hartigan’s costumes, especially all the dresses, tastefully capture designs from the World War II era, the actors changing astonishingly fast behind the scenes.
Meredith Fletcher’s makeup and hair fashions add credibility to the time. Tom O’Reilly has created a comfortable, complex grandmother’s domicile.
Other key production team members are Eleanor Tapscott, producer; Korey Freeman and Diana Selman, assistant producers; Morgan Thomas, assistant director; Lisa Nuccio and Zach Perkins, stage managers; ; David Correia, sound; Brooke Angel Markley, properties.
Now through September 27, Thursday – Saturday at 8 p.m. with half hour talkbacks after 2 p.m. Sunday matinees. Duration: About two hours with one 15-minute intermission. All seats, $29. 600 Wolfe St., Alexandria 22314. Ph. 703-683-0496.
