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The Chopin Playoffs
By Isreal Horowitz
Directed by Elayne & Brian LeTraunik
At Chicago Jewish Theatre
5123 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL
Call 773-728-0599, tickets $25
Thursdays at 8 PM
Saturdays at 8 PM
Sundays at 2 & 7 PM
Running time is 2 hours with intermission
Through February 19, 2006
Horovitz trilogy one too many
Chicago Jewish Theatre produced the first two parts of Isreal Horovitz’s “Growing Up Jewish Trilogy:” Today I Am A Foundation Pen (2003) and A Rosen By Any Other Name (2004). These were pleasant shows, nicely written full of 1940’s PG laughter with a touch of nostalgia and gobs of Jewish humor and irony. The playhouse felt compelled to mount the third part of the trilogy. Unfortunately, it became one play too many. This was not one of prolific playwright Horovitz’s better works. He rehashes too much we’ve already seen twice and doesn’t cover enough new ground to garner more laughs.
It is difficult to have lightening strike three times on the same saga. That is my basic trouble with The Chopin Playoffs. We meet the Rosens and Yanovers in 1947 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario with the boys, Stanley Rosen (Sean Dolan) and Irving Yanover (Ricky Bellows) as high school seniors who are still at each other’s throats this time over Fern Fipps (Becky Lang), their Christian love interest.
Fern seems to love each boy equally and she can’t seem to tell them apart. (She needs glass since Stanley is skinny and wears a red bow tie while Irving is chunky and wears a regular tie.) They are both classic nerds, both are obsessed with the piano and Chopin and both are fiercely competitive. They fight over the girl and over who will win the Chopin Playoff piano contest where the winner will get $4000 college scholarship.
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This thin premise wears quickly as does the Jewish shtick and the nerdy fist fights between the two boys. The boys need to hide their Christian girl friend form their mothers. The key to this play is the girlfriend. I had a problem with how her character was written and how Becky Lang (making her professional debut) presented Fern. Horovitz has her loving each boy equally---impossible to believe since, despite the similarities, Stanley and Irving treat her differently. I have never heard of a woman loving two men equally. Lang spoke many of her lines to softly and too quickly giving them a monotone. She also shouted when trying for emotion or from frustration.
I did like the work of Sean Dolan (Stanley) and Ricky Bellows (Irving) but, again, Horovitz lost the charm and boy-next-door qualities from these characters as they grow into young adults. We simply don’t care who wins or who gets the girl because both boys are worthy. Horovitz only hints at the anti-Semitic family of Fern’s as he justifies the strong pressure to have the boys marry in the faith.
Vladislav Nikolic serves as narrator setting the action, introducing the families and deftly plays several key characters. Nice work here.
The Chopin Playoffs works as light comedy and completes the Horovitz trilogy. Too bad he didn’t write a stronger play to finish the trilogy.
Somewhat Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago Radio show
January 19, 2006
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