BWW Reviews: TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE at 2ND STORY THEATRE - One from the Heart

Either late last winter or early spring, 2nd Story theatre's Artistic Director, Ed Shea, announced that he was looking for less cynicism and revamped the schedule. Out went SPEED THE PLOW and in came CATHOLIC SCHOOL GIRLS. In Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom's adaptation of TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE (based Albom's book), Shea has struck the mother lode of positivity. In this play (and in the book, and in life) Mitch (Jeff Del Sisto) a young, career-driven journalist learns of his former professor Morrie's (Jay Burke) battle with Lou Gehrig's disease and a one-time visit becomes a weekly pilgrimage and a graduate seminar on the meaning of life and death. The book has sold over fourteen million copies and been translated into fourteen languages. Cynical it is not. The question is, how does into translate onto the stage?

So what's to like? First of all, Jay Burke. His Morrie is warm and fuzzy, knows his lines and doesn't bump into the furniture; he has over thirty years acting experience, and it shows. His characterization of an old man facing death with humor and grace makes the play work. If your looking for the anti-cynic, how about this line. "Love is the only rational act." Or, "Forgive everyone everything." These would seem like pabulum if a real person in a real pickle had not said them.

Morrie is comfortable in his skin, and that comfort is reflected in his study, where the play is set. Max Ponticelli has created a very comfortable room for Morrie with an Eames chair, lots of windows, an enormous tree out one of those windows, and a wooden bench for company. Intruding on the beauty is a wheelchair and a walker-death and decay are also characters in the piece; it is the in-you-face manner these, both the equipment and the disease, are presented, which keeps the play from becoming overly sentimental.

Jeff DeSisto as Mitch, on the other hand, left a little to be desired. I could believe his Mitch was career driven, but I did not feel that he really warmed to the situation, truly connected with Morrie. Mitch is about forty in this piece; I would guess DeSisto is about thirty. His character did not seem to change much from the beginning to the end. I did not feel the growth that the role called for.

Nevertheless, the play is worthwhile; in a harsh and cynical age, we could all use a little more Morrie.

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom runs Downstage at 2nd Story Theater, 28 Market St. in Warren, RI until July 23. Performances are 7:30 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and Sunday with a 2:30 matinee Sunday, July 23 at 2:30 (check with the box office as the run is a bit irregular). Running time is an hour and fifteen minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $30.00, $20.00 for those twenty-one and under, and $10.00 for those who had the foresight to attend a preview performance. The box office can be reached by phone at 401 247 4200 or on-line at www.2ndstorytheatre.com. The theater is wheelchair accessible and has a beautiful accessible bathroom.

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