This masterful play, which won the 1997 Tony Award for the best work of that year, deals with exclusion and prejudice within the Jewish community in Atlanta, Georgia in 1939, against the backdrop of the exciting opening of the film, "Gone with the Wind," and Hitler's march on Poland. These are serious cultural and religious issues never discussed outside the inner circle, but Uhry, as he did in Driving Miss Daisy, uses high humor and love of character to bring it all to the forefront.
Here, he smoothly recreates "Ballyhoo," a week-long celebration culminating in a New Years Eve Ball, which was held by Jews of only German descent. This Asolo Theater Company of Sarasota, Florida production, directed by Isa Thomas, in many ways compares favorably with the Broadway production. The two widowed Frietag sisters-in-law, the bitter Boo Levy, who only want her daughter, Lala, married to the right one, played with good purpose by Carolyn Michel and the "airhead," Reba Freitag, played so ever-so sweetly by Sharon Spelman, and their long-suffering brother, Adolph, portrayed with warmth and good timing by Bradford Wallace, give well-rounded performances. Rebecca Baldwin is lovely as Sunny, Reba's daughter, a student at Wellesley College, and a fan of Upton Sinclair. Matthew Tavianini, although obviously not Jewish, is convincing as Joe Farkas, Adolph's new young salesman from Brooklyn, who speaks Yiddish and Hebrew and is proud to be a Jew. Conversely, the Freitags, whose living room is punctuated by a large Xmas tree, and who boast that, but for one other at the tacky end of the street, they are the only Jewish family on Haversham Road.
Even Erik R. Uppling as the wild redhead, Peachy Weil, acquits himself well. All these actors/roles are true to the play's intent; it is the characterization of Lala that is disturbing. Tall and slim with a mass of dark curly hair, Jessica Hecht was a mercurial and sensitive spirit in the part of this misfit "dreamer," leaving the University of Michigan at the end one semester because she has been rejected by a sorority. Stacy Barnhisel, short and stout, is a coarse loud mouth in the same role. Yes. She is funny at moments, but caricature and stereotype do not fit well into this story and changes the balance of the play. As the play wears on, we are laughing at her, not with her. Emulating the gentiles who have excluded them from their country clubs, the German Jews have established The Standard Club, which, in turn, demeans and excludes, "The Other Kind," the Jews with Eastern European backgrounds. When Joe discovers this, he flees. But he reunites with Sunny, who returns his love.
In a moving final scene, the family gathers together at the dining table, while Sunny lights and prays in Hebrew over the Sabbath candles. Wishful thinking? No, there are many such accommodations that have been made over the years. Some of this is painful, yet provocative and ultimately fulfilling. The technical qualities of this production are first rate.
