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.
