How My Grandparents Fell In Love

We all already know the plot of How My Grandparents Fell In Love from the title. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl isn't interested. Boy plies charm to win over girl. Girl starts to fall in love with boy, but obstacles occur. Since the couple are Jews in 1933 Poland, we also know that the obstacles will be serious and the denouement will be bittersweet or flat-out heart-breaking.

Becca Suskauer, Harris Milgrim
Photo: Carol Rosegg

There's nothing wrong with being predictable. There are a limited number of plots and tropes in theatre, and repeating plot points is often a necessity. However, for a show to work, it has to make us believe in this girl and boy and this set of circumstances. That's how a predictable plot earns its individuality and emotional heft.

The musical How My Grandparents Fell in Love does well in terms of the characters. They are well-drawn, and their wants and needs are clear. Unfortunately, in the recent production of the show at 59e59, presented by the New Jersey Repertory Company and directed by Suzanne Barabas, Charlie (Harris Milgrim) and Chava (Becca Suskauer) fail to manifest the necessary chemistry until the second act, leaving much of the first act without drive and dimension.

Becca Suskauer, Harris Milgrim
Photo: Carol Rosegg

The book (Cary Gitter), music (Neil Berg), and lyrics (Neil Berg and Cary Gitter) are often good but never great. Too many songs rely on tired rhymes, although the writers do compensate with the creative rhymes in a song about Hoboken. The book has trouble balancing its conflicting emotions. In one case, after Chava reports something so horrible that most of the people in the audience actually gasped, her next line is, "We got a larger apartment."

I did not much like this show while watching it, but it has grown on me. Its flaws are serious, but its creators gave it their hearts and souls. There is something there. 

Wendy Caster

Miracle on South Division Street

Miracle on South Division Street, by Tom Dudzick, will be at the Sheen Center on Bleecker Street from April 14 to May 10. I have had the pleasure of seeing Miracle a number of times, including this production when it was at Penguin Rep last year.

Miracle is the story of the Nowaks, a Polish Catholic family in Buffalo, long known for the miracle that occurred Grandpa’s barbershop in 1942. But, what did that miracle really mean? Was it really a miracle? Being forced to confront these questions makes the Nowaks reconsider their lives and their beliefs.

Dudzick's play tells this story with a combination of humor, warmth, and insight. It's a comedy that leaves you thinking.

Here's my full disclosure: Tom Dudzick is my brother-in-law. So you might want to take my opinion with a grain of salt. But here's a fact: every time I've seen Miracle, the audience has laughed their way from start to finish. In the New York Theatre Guide, critic Peter Danish wrote, “Miracle on South Division Street is a quietly powerful gem."

Tom's other plays include Over the Tavern, Don't Talk to the Actors, Greetings, and Hail Mary. His plays have had hundreds of productions, all over the country and in Ireland, Israel, and India.

This production, smoothly directed by Joe Brancato, has an excellent cast, led by Liz McCartney (Clara), whose Broadway credits include Mamma Mia, The Phantom of the Opera, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Les Misérables. She is perhaps best known for her celebrated turn in Boy George's Taboo. And she's appeared on The Gilded Age!

Grace Experience (Ruth) has performed at the Lyric Stage of Boston, Capital Rep, 59E59, George Street, and Berkshire Theatre; she also tours with an ABBA Tribute band and is an award winning audiobook narrator for Penguin Random House and Audible. Joey Pittorino (Jimmy) recently appeared in Macbeth with The Curtain. His TV/film work includes Law and Order SVU, Evil Lives Here, Over the Hill, and Truth. BFA in Acting from Pace University. And Coryn Carson (Beverly) has performed and trained in improv and comedy at UCB and The PIT, and can be seen performing throughout the city, most recently at Brooklyn Comedy Collective.

I hope you visit the Nowaks at the Sheen Center and have a great time!

Wendy Caster

Sins and Grace

On March 23 and 24th, MasterVoices presented yet another fabulous musical evening.

Actually, make that a particularly fabulous musical evening. 

Musical Director Ted Sperling juxtaposed Faure's gorgeous requiem with the seven deadly sins, as written by nine theatre and concert composers/lyricists. 

Photo: Erin Baiano

The evening started with the requiem, gloriously rendered by a small orchestra, two soloists (Mikaela Bennett and Justin Austin), and the terrific 125-strong MasterVoices. Bennett's gorgeous "Pie Jesu" was the best I've ever heard, in person or recorded. I don't have official music vocabulary, but her voice was full, smooth, round, meaningful, and kinda perfect. (If you'd like to read a review by someone more musically knowledgeable, I recommend this one by David Wright.)

 

Mikaela Bennett
Photo: Erin Baiano

The writers of the sins were tasked with using the somewhat unusual orchestra (eg, no winds, only one violin), both soloists, and the MasterVoices. Some extra percussion was added.

All seven sins were well-served. My two favorites were on opposite ends of complexity. 

Lust, by Michael Abels, used a simple palette of noises, rather than lyrics. MasterVoices's performance of moans and other sounds was both sexy and quite funny. A real treat. (It's fun to imagine the rehearsals!)

Justin Austin 
Photo: Erin Baiano

Heather Christian's Wrath was so intricate that Sperling took time to explain that it really deserved an extended rehearsal period, which it hadn't had. With MasterVoices split into multiple choruses, and the orchestra--particularly the percussion--blasting away, the piece was noisy and angry and thrilling. 

I never understand why there are empty seats at MasterVoices performances. Their batting average is amazing, and tickets go for as little as $38. 

Wendy Caster

American Symphony Orchestra: Forging an American Musical Identity

In 1962, when the New York Philharmonic moved from Carnegie Hall to the brand-new Lincoln Center, famed Conductor Leopold Stokowski founded the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) to play at Carnegie. The ASO had, and has, multiple goals: affordable prices; concerts of less-known pieces, particularly from the Americas; and the presentation of new music. The orchestra also has an educational component, including in-person conductor's Q&As preceding performances; concerts at the Metropolitan Museum keyed into current exhibitions; detailed and often fascinating notes in the Playbills: and free videos and recordings on the website (americansymphony.org/). Music Director Leon Botstein, part of the ASO since 1992, honors the music with excellent presentations and is a clear and charming speaker. 

In other words, the ASO and Mr Botstein are treasures.

Photo: Matt Dine

At the recent Carnegie Hall concert, the ASO and the Bard Festival Chorale performed an evening titled "Forging an American Musical Identity," starting with Dudley Buck's Festival Overture on the American Air (1879), theme and variations on "The Star-Spangled Banner." I am not a fan of "The Star-Spangled Banner," finding it too martial and not all that pleasant to listen to. But Buck made it as beautiful as I think it ever could be.

Next came three spirituals arranged by Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949), arguably the first Black composer to achieve national fame. They were gloriously sung by mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges.

J'Nai Bridges
Photo: Matt Dine

The first act closed with an American centennial march (1876) by Richard Wagner, which was surprisingly dull.

Photo: Matt Dine

The second act brought Symphony No. 5, Op. 62, "Niagara," composed by George Frederick Bristow (1825-1898), with text by Charles Walker Lord, featuring orchestra, chorale, and four soloists. The work hadn't been performed in full in over a hundred years. As rescued by the ASO, the piece was received rapturously, in a way that made me hope that, if there is an afterlife, Bristow was watching.

Wendy Caster