FIRST NIGHT OF 'LAST NIGHT' AT EL PORTAL.Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic For her first assignment in the venue she now oversees, Hope Alexander - the new producing director of the Actors Alley company at the El Portal El Portal may refer to different places in the United States:
Safe choice, competent production. There may be some craggy crag·gy adj. crag·gi·er, crag·gi·est 1. Having crags: craggy terrain. 2. Rugged and uneven: a craggy face. thematic edges written into this tale of over-assimilated Jews in 1939 Atlanta, but Alexander's mixed bag of an ensemble largely steers clear of them - not always to the production's betterment. Genial good humor this ``Ballyhoo'' has aplenty a·plen·ty adj. In plentiful supply; abundant: "There were warning signs aplenty for their candidates as well" Michael Gelb. . Uhry, who also wrote ``Driving Miss Daisy Driving Miss Daisy is a 1987 play by Alfred Uhry about the relationship of an elderly Southern Jewish lady shares with her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Colburn, over the span of several decades. ,'' is a pretender to Neil Simon's throne, and a couple of his characters are Dixie-fried Dickens. The two major events of the day are the Atlanta premiere of ``Gone With the Wind'' and Ballyhoo bal·ly·hoo n. pl. bal·ly·hoos 1. Sensational or clamorous advertising or publicity. 2. Noisy shouting or uproar. tr.v. , the annual debutante ball for the city's German- Jewish upper crust. A few people in the Freitag/Levy household actually give a rat's behind about the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in Europe, but in Ballyhoo-obsessed Atlanta, too many can't see past filtering out their own ``other kind'' - meaning Jews of Russian heritage. Working-class Joe Farkas, a New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of transplant, is the outsider - the one who will ultimately learn how things work. Factory owner patriarch Adolph Freitag (played by Joel Brooks) lives in a houseful of women. His widowed sister Boo Levy (Judith Ann Levitt) lives only to see her daughter, Lala (Lydia Lee Belvin), married. Lala, an ambition-free college failure, exists only to see ``Gone With the Wind'' and spear a date for Ballyhoo. Reba Freitag (Norma Morrow), Adolph's sister-in-law, is kooky but good-hearted, while Reba's daughter, Sunny (Ali Humiston), home from the Ivy League, is Adolph's hope for the future. He even tries to match her up with his best worker, Joe (Fred Savage of ``The Wonder Years''). To everyone's good fortune - except man-hungry Lala - there is a mutual attraction. The play is Joe's education, and Sunny's. Except for Adolph, we're dealing with a closed-minded and largely unlikable family. Uhry, however, seems to think there's hope here. His final scene, which rings false, suggests that the Levys and Freitags might someday reach a kind of enlightenment. Comedy, Alexander's cast can handle. What's sometimes missing is the import, the sense that these characters are shallow because their heritage has effectively been bred out of them. When Joe informs Sunny - correctly - that a Christmas tree Christmas tree Evergreen tree, usually decorated with lights and ornaments, to celebrate the Christmas season. The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands as symbols of eternal life was common among the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. implies that her family doesn't want to be Jewish, the revelation should sting. It doesn't. If Ali Humiston's Sunny can't convincingly struggle with her character's sociological demons Demons See also devil; evil; ghosts; hell; spirits and spiritualism. ademonist one who denies the existence of the devil or demons. bogyism, bogeyism recognition of the existence of demons and goblins. , then what's our investment? Even less palatable is Sunny's dizzy cousin Lala - a character whose Scarlett O'Hara-worshiping antics mask a seriously pathetic loneliness. Belvin plays it too broadly, all swoons and nervous hiccups Hiccups Definition Hiccups are the result of an involuntary, spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm followed by the closing of the throat. Description . A key confrontational scene between Belvin and Humiston also fails to jar. The show could use slightly more space than El Portal's intimate Circle Theatre affords. The Freitag family's opulence feels slightly smushed to the point that Lala has to steer her outrageous Ballyhoo dress clumsily around furniture. A swinging door that's supposed to lead into the kitchen reveals what looks like attic fixtures. Savage, in a Jimmy Stewart turn, is making a smooth transition into adult roles. Levitt and Morrow are suitable contrasts as, respectively, the bitter and hopeful household matriarchs. The production's true ace is Brooks, who brings to Adolph a laconic la·con·ic adj. Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise. See Synonyms at silent. [Latin Lac self-awareness. A nice scene between Brooks and Humiston over a game of cards reveals more about the relationship between uncle and niece than Uhry offers through the rest of the play. ``THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO'' Where: El Portal Center El Portal Center is a regional 385,000 square foot indoor mall located in the north Rio Grande bank in downtown Laredo, Texas[1]. It was previously known as the River Drive Mall until 2003 when Morgan Stern Realty bought it and renovated it. for the Arts Circle Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; through Dec. 16. Tickets: $22 to $25. Call (818) 508-4200. Our rating: Three stars CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Greg Vojtanek, left, Ali Humiston, Fred Savage and Lydia Lee Belvin share a scene from El Portal's production of ``The Last Night of Ballyhoo.'' |
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