Act I is brilliantly played for laughs, but in the second act these seemingly two dimensional characters add dimension as we learn just what makes them tick — just what in their past has led them to this present, discordant moment.
Read MoreThe play opens in 2003, on the day Wiesenthal is closing down his Vienna office after 58 years of sleuthing which brought down 1,100 Nazi war criminals (although he later laments that this was only 5% of the total). He is a man not filled with passion for revenge — but with passion for Justice. On this last day, as he packs up his memorabilia, he addresses the audience as if we were touring American students on a visit, taking time to inform us, although he had promised his wife to curtail his teaching.
Read MoreIt’s not that this is a bad play — there are some genuinely humorous moments — it is just that it is not outstanding. Perhaps Crimes of the Heart was a groundbreaker in the genre of dysfunctional Southern families, although dysfunction alone — even if set in the South — ought not to be enough to garner awards.
Read MoreBut idea, no matter how brilliant, is nothing without execution, and the four golden-voiced, charismatic and sure-footed singer/dancer/actors — Carol Bordonada, Nicole Kinzel, Sharyn Peoples, and Ziarra Washington — never miss a note, a beat, a step, or timing in their infinitely varied solos, medleys, trios, and quartets. Props are deceptively simple and effective: a quilt, shiny white boots, red boas, all underscoring appropriate lyrics. In addition, two screens emphasize the message with filmed portraits ranging from Betty Boop to Rosa Parks.
Read MoreKudos to playwright Alfred Uhry. Just as in his Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award Winning play and movie, “Driving Miss Daisy,” he has once again mined the world of Southern Jewry for a heartwarming story transcending ethnic and regional limitations.
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