|
Rising
Action
Theatre
Company
Artistic
Director
David
Goldyn
had
all
his
gay
bases
covered
when
he
announced
his
company’s
2007-08
season:
Tommy
Femia
in
“Judy
Garland’s
Back,”
Wendy
Wasserstein’s
“Sisters
Rosensweig,”
and
Terrence
McNally’s
“Some
Men.”
Throw
in
a
Barbra
Streisand
impersonator,
and
a
show
about
a
Southern
Baptist
widow
who
takes
dance
lessons
from
a
gay
man,
and
the
company
was
bound
to
sell
lots
of
tickets
in
homo-friendly
Oakland
Park
and
Wilton
Manors
(and
the
rest
of
South
Florida).
The
company’s
current
production,
the
award-winning
“Sisters
Rosenweig,”
is
bringing
in
more
diverse
audiences,
including
lots
of
lesbians
and,
not
surprisingly,
Jewish
women.
The
play,
set
in
1993,
weaves
together
the
emotional
struggles
of
three
Jewish
sisters
from
Brooklyn,
a
furrier
and
a
flamboyant
“bisexual”
theater
director,
all
on
a
complicated
and
confusing
search
for
happiness.
The
sisters
have
changed
since
leaving
home
decades
earlier:
Sara
(played
by
Ellen
Wacher)
is
a
hardened
international
bank
executive
living
in
London
with
her
daughter,
Tess
(Emi
Arteche);
Pfeni
(Elizabeth
Anne
Garrard)
is
the
free
spirit,
a
40
year
old
travel
writer
whose
adventures
take
her
across
the
Third
World;
and
Gorgeous
(Merry
Jo
Cortada)
has
settled
in
Newton,
Mass.,
the
only
sister
to
cling
to
her
religion
while
coping
with
a
failing
marriage.
They
are
reunited
in
London
for
Sara’s
54th
birthday,
and
must
rekindle
their
relationships,
as
well
as
cope
with
the
complications
presented
by
their
various
love
interests.
Merv
the
furrier
(Stephen
Solomon)
is
an
amourous
suitor
for
the
jaded
Sara;
bisexual
theatre
director
Geoffrey
(Larry
Fields)
struggles
with
a
sexual
identity
crisis
while
his
girlfriend
Pfeni
remains
oblivious;
and
Nicholas
(Jerry
Jensen)
is
an
alleged
fascist
sympathizer
who
has
maintained
a
superficial
relationship
with
Sara,
who
shuns
her
Jewish
heritage.
Even
Sara’s
daughter,
a
college
student,
must
examine
her
values
and
goals,
as
she
contemplates
taking
off
for
the
Baltic
with
her
Lithuanian
ex-pat
boyfriend
to
take
part
in
the
pro-independence
rallies
that
followed
the
demise
of
the
Soviet
Union.
Rising
Action’s
new
storefront
theatre
is
a
cozy
space,
well
suited
for
the
production.
The
set
design
by
Douglas
Grinn
effectively
creates
Sara’s
tony
brownstone
in
Queen
Anne’s
Gate,
and
is
enhanced
by
Tyrone
Gordon’s
lighting
design.
Wasserstein’s
play
is
laced
with
subtle
humor
and
lots
of
Jewish
cultural
references
that,
unfortunately,
seem
lost
on
the
cast
and
most
certainly
did
not
elicit
much
reaction
from
the
audience.
Instead,
the
cast
tends
to
approach
their
characters
superficially,
relying
on
outrageous
two-dimensional
stereotypes
to
get
through
the
script.
Wacher
fails
to
convince
as
the
hard-
edged,
cutthroat
(and
conflicted)
business
woman,
seeming
more
grandmotherly
throughout.
Garrard
comes
across
like
a
Jewish
Rosie
O’Donnell;
and
Cortada
is
a
less-shrill
Megan
Mullaly
(a
la
Karen
Walker).
Individual
efforts
aside,
the
cast
also
lacks
chemistry.
It
was
well
into
the
second
act
before
the
threesome
began
to
successfully
portray
the
sisterly
bonds
that
are
so
integral
to
the
story.
Solomon
is
solid
as
Merv
the
furrier;
but
Fields’
portrayal
of
the
flamboyant
bisexual
director
was
completely
over-the-top
and
outrageous.
His
funniest
moment
—
perhaps
the
funniest
moment
of
the
evening,
unfortunately
—
occurred
before
the
show,
as
I
thumbed
through
the
actors’
biographies.
Fields
definitely
set
the
tone
for
his
performance
with
this:
“Larry
Fields
(Geoffrey
Duncan)
is
happy
to
be
making
his
first
appearance
with
Rising
Action
Theatre…Larry
enjoys
meeting
with
random
tricks
from
the
internet
(if
you
are
a
random
trick
from
the
internet,
please
see
Larry
after
the
show),
and
being
mean
to
his
good
Christian
family
in
Ohio….Fun
Fact:
Larry,
like
Geoffrey
in
the
play,
is
a
bisexual.
Larry
realizes
that
all
homosexual
people
in
the
audience
think
this
is
bullshit.”
There
is
hope
for
the
production,
which
is
running
through
Aug.
3.
With
more
performances,
the
cast
can
develop
the
chemistry
and
comedic
timing
that
Wasserstein’s
play
deserves.
 |
 |
| The
following comments were posted by our readers and were
not edited by floridablade.com. We ask that you
treat others with respect; any post deemed offensive will
be removed. |
|
|
