Coney Island Christmas

Playwright Donald Margulies has taken Grace Paley's short story, “The Loudest Voice,” and turned it into a family holiday show, Coney Island Christmas, now in its world-premiere run at the Geffen Playhouse.

Paley looks back with nostalgia on a Depression-era Brooklyn Jewish family whose young daughter Shirley -- she of the loud, clear voice -- has been cast as Jesus Christ in her school's Christmas play. Shirley (Isabella Acres), a budding actress, is thrilled by the idea -- and so is her fishmonger father (Arye Gross). However, Mama Abramowitz (Annabelle Gurwitch) refuses to let Shirley take part in a Gentile celebration, lest it undermine her Jewish identity. An argument follows, the result of which is that Shirley must hide her participation in the show from Mama.

Margulies handles the family squabble deftly but keeps it as background to the main story thrust, the school show itself. Featuring a dozen-odd kids clad in tatty costumes and wielding cardboard props, the show has its comic moments -- especially when Santa Claus and Tiny Tim are thrown into the surrealistic mix -- but the sketch goes on too long and soon loses its charm.

Margulies frames his play with an opening scene set in modern-day Los Angeles, where the now-elderly Shirley (Angela Paton) describes that oh-so-cute Coney Island Christmas for the benefit of her granddaughter (Grace Kaufman). Past and present are bathed in a warm, sentimental light and covered with enough shmaltz to choke a rhinoceros.