SIMON'S "LOST" FOUND
Lost in Yonkers
Static Multimedia, FILM FESTIVAL TRAVELLER
Kevin Filipski
April 12 2012
Off-Broadway, Neil Simon's 1991 Pulitzer and Tony winner, Lost in Yonkers, is being wonderfully revived by the enterprising theater company TACT, and whatever's lost in the transition from the Broadway stage to TACT's tiny space is compensated for by an intimacy heretofore unseen in Simon's most autobiographical work.
On the heels of his acclaimed '80s trilogy - comprising Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound - Lost in Yonkers is Simon's most fully rounded and satisfying play. It's hard to fathom that, a mere two decades ago, Simon was a box-office sensation, and today he's remembered for his superficial comedies with one-liners strewn throughout, like Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple.
The usual one-liners also make their way to Yonkers, as 15-year-old Jay and 13-year-old Artie - who in 1942 are made to live with their stern Grandma Kurnitz when dad Eddie must leave town to find work to pay off a loanshark-muster enough zingers for a top comic's stand-up routine. Yet such verbal virtuosity is the boys' defense mechanism to steel themselves against the adults in their lives: in addition their father and grandmother, there's flighty Aunt Bella and crooked Uncle Louie.
Simon's sentimental and schematic play is essentially Death of a Salesman with jokes, but his flawed characters are warmer and more plausibly human than Arthur Miller's. In Jenn Thompson's beautifully paced staging, it's well worth spending two-plus hours with this family, brought to life by a cast which flawlessly combines sitcom jokiness and touching vulnerability.
The boys, Matthew Gumley (Jay) and Russell Posner (Arty), are pitch-perfect. Even more impressive stepping into the formidable (and Tony-winning) shoes of Mercedes Ruehl and Irene Worth, respectively, are Finnerty Steeves (Bella) and Cynthia Harris (Grandma), who triumph by avoiding the strong pull of Simonesque caricature. Getting Lost in Yonkers is time well-spent.