LOST IN YONKERS by Carol Kaufman Segal

            The Lonny Chapman Theatre is presenting Neil Simon’s comedy/drama Lost In Yonkers.  Neil Simon is a man of extreme talent and is the recipient of many awards for his abundance of work.  His multitude of plays, musicals, films, television shows and series have proven to be successes.  He has a gift for comedy as well as for drama, plots and characterizations.   Lost In Yonkers is one of his best plays.  It won the Tony Award in 1991, and brought Neil Simon the Pulitzer Prize for Drama that same year.           

            The play is set in Yonkers, New York in 1942, where Grandma Kurnitz (Loraine Shields) and her daughter Bella (Roslyn Cohn) run Kurnitz Kandy Store while living in an apartment above the confectionary (charming set by Chris Winfield).  Grandma’s two grandsons, 15-year old Jay (Bennett Saltzman) and 13-year old Arty (Brent Anthony) are waiting for their father, Eddie (Patrick Burke) to come out from their Grandma’s room, not knowing what to expect.   

            Eddie’s wife recently died and he is in debt due to her long illness.  He and the boys had to give up their apartment, and Eddie needs to go on the road to look for work to get out of his predicament.  He has come to seek help from his mother to take the boys in while he is away, and he knows it will not be an easy request.  Eddie’s mother has always been an extremely stringent woman, never revealing any love towards her family.  The boys are not too keen, themselves, about having to live with her.

            During their prolonged wait, Bella arrives home and she and the boys click.  Not surprising, Grandma says no to Eddie’s request, but Bella starts to bring their belongings in and Grandma acquiesces and agrees to a ten-month period.   During the ten-month period, Eddie keeps in touch with the family through letters (he reads aside on stage).    

            And during the ten-month period, Bella strives for a normal life though her mind is hardly more advanced than that of a child and it is obvious she has been deprived of love throughout all of her years.  Uncle Louie (Van Boudreaux) drops by for a visit and we also meet Bella’s and Louie’s sister Gert (Julie Davis), both of whom bear the scars of this dysfunctional family.             

            The Group Rep's production of this play is of the highest quality, superbly performed by an outstanding cast and superbly directed by Larry Eisenberg (Co-Artistic Director of the Lonny Chapman Theatre).  It is a drama filled with emotion, but comedy persists as well.  Every performer is outstanding and all actors' dialects are perfect throughout.  I must give extra kudos to Roslyn Cohn for her performance as Bella.   

            Lost In Yonkers plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, and Sundays at 2 PM, through October 8.  The Lonny Chapman Theatre is located at 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood.  Tickets are available at www.thegrouprep.com, or info@thegrouprep.com, or reservations may be made by calling (828) 763-5990. 

           

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