You Can Take the Boy Out of Brooklyn...

"Brooklyn Boy"

Written by Donald Margulies, directed by Adam Zahler, scenic design by Audra Avery, costume design by Chelsea White, lighting design by Karen Perlow, sound design by Jeffrey Alan Jones

Cast in order of appearance:

Eric Weiss, Victor Warren

Manny Weiss, David Kristin

Ira Zimmer, Ken Baltin

Nina, Debra Wise

Alison, Joy Lamberton

Melanie Fine, Ellen Colton

Tyler Shaw, Brad Smith

Performances: Now through April 1

Box Office: 617-933-8600 or www.BostonTheatreScene.com

It's understandable why director Adam Zahler is such a busy man in the Boston area. Earlier this season he directed the New Rep's relentlessly honest production of "Frozen." Next up at the Lyric Stage is his highly anticipated interpretation of Lanford Wilson's "Talley's Folly." Currently, his wisely understated "Brooklyn Boy" at the SpeakEasy Stage is taking a fresh look at an age-old struggle – a son's constant yearning for acceptance and approval from an emotionally unsupportive father.

The "Brooklyn Boy" of the play's title is author Eric Weiss, a neighborhood escapee who nevertheless revisits his old haunts – and his childhood – in his best-selling 364-page novel titled, coincidentally, "Brooklyn Boy." Despite the obvious similarities his novel has to his own life, however, Weiss adamantly denies that he is the title character or that his family and friends are in it. "This is a novel. It's fiction. The characters are composites," he argues. But one wonders whom he is trying to convince: those that recognize themselves in his book, or the author himself.

For it is clear from the outset that Weiss is simultaneously trying to face his childhood demons and run headlong away from them. He has written a book that is forcing him to confront himself at every turn, yet he has spent the better part of his adult life rejecting his religion, assimilating into an upper-class gentile world, and detaching himself from the very friends who would remind him of his Jewish heritage.

In "Brooklyn Boy," Weiss' reluctant journey through his turbulent past is set in motion when he returns home to visit his father, Manny, a crusty old cuss who hasn't lost any of his edge even though he is dying of cancer. Ever the critic, Manny even manages to turn the fact that his son's novel has achieved the eleventh spot on the best-seller list into a failure. "It's a good thing they go to 15 now," he moans. This funny but poignantly revealing exchange defines the mutual disappointment between an emotionally withholding father and his affection-deprived son. It also defines the difference between generations. Manny is an intelligent but pragmatic man who chose to feed and clothe his family by selling shoes all his life instead of pursuing loftier dreams. Eric is a college-educated child of the '60s whose intellectual ambitions have distanced him from the realities of his immigrant ancestry and made him seem smug and even patronizing.

As the eminently successful but personally unfulfilled novelist Eric, actor Victor Warren is all coolly detached observer on the surface, yet desperately needy boy underneath. His manner is at once urbane and humble, and the only indications he gives us of his Jewish past are an ever so slight lilt in his speech and an unconscious knowing nod of the head. In scenes where he talks about his father with his old friend Ira and his young admirer Alison, Warren presents a subtle mix of defensiveness and vulnerability. In scenes with his father and his estranged wife, Nina, he shows mounting frustration hidden beneath a combination of hope and resignation. The only thing missing from Warren's performance is the off-hand humor that Margulies has written into the title role. A little more levity and a little less self-pity would make Warren's Weiss much more warm and appealing.

Ken Baltin as Ira is in fact the real delight of this "Brooklyn Boy." His exuberance is uncontained when he reacquaints with his school-chum-turned-celebrity in the hospital cafeteria. He is a combination of both trusted friend and adoring fan who offers accolades along with sincere affection. Even as Eric strains to get away from the man who chose to stay in Brooklyn and run his father's deli, Baltin's Ira remains steadfast. He is as comforting as the prayer and the box of rugelach he brings to Eric when his father finally succumbs to cancer.

As the feisty Manny, David Kristin falls just short of turning into a caricature. He groans, he kvetches, he answers questions with questions, but he also finds the pride and the practicality inside the disillusionment and the compromises. Joy Lamberton as the star-struck writer wannabe who joins Weiss in his hotel room one night after an LA book signing manages to dodge the Valley Girl airhead stereotype while embracing the moonchild aspects of her character. And Debra Wise in the difficult role of the soon-to-be ex-wife Nina is determined without being cold and sarcastic without being bitchy.

Zahler's able direction of Margulies' smart script makes this SpeakEasy production of "Brooklyn Boy" seem like an old friend. The characters are all people we know, and their everyday language is both funny and familiar. In the end, "Brooklyn Boy" may not break any important new ground, but its warm wit and honest heart remind us that our pasts do, indeed, affect our futures. We can run from our histories, but we cannot hide.

 

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