"Speak softly and carry a big stick" was a diplomatic adage from several decades ago.
Aging-but-tough Grandma Kurnitz, strong-willed matriarch of a decidedly dysfunctional clan, has the "big stick" part down pat. She rules her Yonkers household with a cold, no-nonsense iron will and a sturdy cane - the latter not only useful for easing her limp, but very handy for rapping knuckles and jabbing ornery boys in the ribs.Up until a sweltering August day in 1942, the two-bedroom flat over Kurnitz's Kandy Store has been home for just Grandma and one of her daughters, the spinsterish and flighty Bella (both given well-honed performances by Elaine Grollman and Dee Dee Friedman, respectively).
But Grandma's neatly patterned life is about to be changed abruptly. When the curtain goes up, her two grandsons - Jay, 151/2, and Arty, two years younger - are nervously waiting for their recently widowed father, Eddie, to finish his long conversation with his mother in the bedroom.
Dad's deeply in debt, having spent a loan shark's $9,000 to cover his wife's medical expenses before she died of cancer. His desperate solution: leave Jay and Arty with Grandma while he hits the road selling scrap metal, a commodity now in demand due to the outbreak of World War II.
During the ensuing eight scenes, it's Jay and Arty vs. their staunchly Old Country grandma. In this house, though, you'd better call them Jacob (yaw-kub) and Arthur. If they're looking for warm, fuzzy feelings in their new environment, they won't be coming from Grandma.
Adding spice to the mix is their loving but slow-on-the-uptake Aunt Bella and a surprise visit from mobster-on-the-run Uncle Louie, a henchman (or is that hunchback?) being pursued by two guys in a black Studebaker.
The other socially impaired member of the family, Aunt Gert, doesn't surface until Act Two.
Despite the somewhat dark underpinnings (the overbearing German Jewish Grandma has produced a family of misfits, mobsters and wimps), there are ample doses of typically Simonesque humor, thanks largely to the coming-of-age banter between Jay and Arty - two terrific roles for a pair of excellent young actors, Alex P. Baack and Danny Cistone.
Daniel Oreskes also does a fine job as rough-talking Uncle Louie, and Diane Ciesla is very good as strange Aunt Gert.
Eddie, played superbly by Stephen Singer, is a "bookend" role. He's on stage in the opening and closing scenes. Otherwise, his main presence is in the voiced-over letters he sends to his sons from Georgia, Missouri, New Mexico and elsewhere across the South and Southwest.
This touring production of Neil Simon's Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play has a rock-solid cast of New York professionals. Is it worth the drive to Ogden? Well, considering that the weather is fine and the roads are clear - and that any regional productions are at least a year or so away - I recommend it highly.
- Sensitivity rating: Some profanity and vulgarity.