The People in the Picture, book and lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart, music by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler, well directed by Leonard Foglia, gives us an old woman, beautifully played by Donna Murphy, who takes us back to a long-gone world as she has memory delusions of her past: 1937 Poland, where a Yiddish Theatre troupe goes from shtetl to shtetl performing. We travel through old photographs of these people to their lives portrayed on the stage by a lively, able cast of high level professionals.
The brilliant set by Riccardo Hernandez is basically picture frame inside picture frame as we alternate past and present, and Ann Hould-Ward's costumes keep the era alive. The piece opens with choreography based on old time Jewish folk dancing, and develops into views of the beginning of the Holocaust, the pogroms. People in the Picture is a beautifully produced show, including black and white photo projections from that time, but there is a curious disjointedness to the piece as it jumps back and forth in time.
Murphy shines, and she does get to do a good comic number as her younger self. Sentimentality is sprinkled throughout the revival of the past, and we can't help but be moved by the result of the realities of that time. I was engaged by the songs, the singers, the sadness of that period of history, and the life force of these memorable people. The folk dance theme gives the show a parenthesis, and I found the totality to be a rewarding evening of theater.
