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Home > Blogs > Arts and Entertainment > Archives > 2008 > September > 06 > Entry
Human Race brews up warm family comedy
The Human Race Theatre Company has challenged audiences often during its first 21 seasons. It launched the 22nd Friday, Sept. 5, with a conventional family comedy.
Equal measures of “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Late Nite Catechism,” Tom Dudzick’s crowd-pleasing 1994 play “Over the Tavern” tickled funnybones and left the full house with a warm glow.
Not just a Catholic version of Neil Simon’s trilogy, the two-act, 150-minute production nonetheless invites comparisons.
It’s set in a different ethnic enclave — blue-collar 1959 Buffalo, where 12-year-old Rudy Pazinski, two brothers and a sister who’s just starting to tease her hair and yearn for romance strive to survive growing pains in a Polish-American family that lives upstairs from dad Chet’s struggling tavern.
Despite the title, the bar plays little role in the proceedings. It casts a shadow in the form of a character named Pop who never appears, but has an undefined negative impact on Chet.
The focus is Rudy, played with effective and natural ease by Alexander McCracken as a funny, challenging, creative and basically good kid, despite collisions with strict Sister Clarissa (Joan Shepard), an almost stereotypical nun who turns out to be more than that.
Caroline Clarke, whose 16th birthday coincided with her professional stage debut on opening night, plays Annie. Trevor Coran is older brother Eddie and Drew Attaway is developmentally disabled little Georgie, whose comic timing is sometimes just too amazingly perfect.
Director Pamela Hill chose them wisely and has meshed them into a family.
The play is at its best in the comic scenes that include the kids. As mom Ellen, Margaret Knapp’s economic one-on-one scenes with them and Chet consistently resonate on a deeper level. The Pazinskis would be in a fix without her.
It’s not the fault of Jeff Williams’ portrayal that Chet’s resurrection from tense grouch to patient, caring papa late in Act 2 is underwritten and unconvincing. The transformation does pave the way for a satisfying final scene between Chet and Rudy.
“Over the Tavern” will continue through Sept. 21 on Tuesdays through Sundays at The Loft, 126 N. Main St. Tickets are $16.50-$36. Call (937) 228-3630 or order online at www.ticketcenterstage.com.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Review, Theater
Comments
By nodogs
September 9, 2008 4:17 AM | Link to this
I love Terry Morris’ reviews. Keep ‘em coming.