Sadly, financial troubles plague the ever-promising Ensemble Theatre following the courageous picks for their season and their simultaneous move to their new, half-finished location in Scottsdale. Rather than mounting 3 By Pinter, as originally announced and eagerly anticipated, they have instead contracted a company that offers a play that had a recent 11-month run Off Broadway. The show is Alan Brandt's 2 1/2 Jews. Its selling points: it is about a grandfather, father, and son dealing with the differences of their upbringing and attitude; and it stars Len Lesser, who is best known as "Uncle Leo" on what is arguably the greatest TV comedy ever created, Seinfeld. When this script is being funny, which is about half the time, it's very snappy in a New York Jewish sort of way. When it's being serious, unfortunately the other half of the time, it's very kvetchy in a New York Jewish sort of way.
Mr. Lesser is Morris, a septuagenarian widower and free spirit. An émigré from Lithuania, he has raised Nathan, a son who went to NYU law, and is now a famed civil liberties attorney. Nathan's son, Marc, is a Yale educated lawyer who has passed up his father's civil liberties practice to be a corporate counsel. All three have one thing in common, though: They're stubborn. It is this trait that drives the limited action, while it is their sardonic attitudes that keep the audience from being bored to distraction by their pedestrian problems. The uneven script introduces Morris and Nathan in a promisingly joke-filled first scene, only to introduce the relationship of Nathan and Marc in a dirge-like second scene. The ties that bind are unrealistically (and worse, uninterestingly) resolved in a second act that wildly leaps between comedy and tragedy, never giving the audience a chance to empathize with those whose jokes at which we are laughing.
With the limited action availed to Director Steve Josephson, he does what he can to create any kind of stage pictures (helped greatly by the minimilist, yet oddly fitting unbilled set design), and get his characters to avoid sitting for as long as the "action" in the script requests. Beyond this, though, his hands are tied. Not only does the awkward script sabotage him, but on opening night after a week of previews, he was blindsided by the simply awful performance of one of the three men.
Veteran Kenneth Bridges, in the role of the thickheaded Nathan, seemed like he was in fits trying to remember his lines. Between his obvious stumbling and miscues, he ground the pacing to a painful halt with his interminable hesitations and myriad of "ums" and "ahs." Sad, since this is the character with whom the audience enters and exits from this piece. His problems cause the audience to exit the play a lot sooner than they exit the theatre. Somewhat better is Mark Robert Gordon as the young Marc. While he is more comfortable with his character, his seeming choice of smugness feels like the wrong one. Of course, better a choice than a flounder. The best of the cast is Mr. Lesser, whose charge it is to carry the humor of the piece. Since his material is worthy, his choices and timing are excellent, and his demeanor hilarious, he is the only reason to sit through this overwhelmingly lackluster production.
Barely adequate is Glorianne Engel's lighting, while Johanna Doty's sound design is solid.
A successful script is one that manages to integrate humor with humanity, finding the jokes that further the action of the script, rather than grafting them on in a start-and-stop method. It is noted in the playwright's bio that this is his first script. This fact shows. For script-aficionados such as I, it is infuriating to see unpolished, amateur scripts like these receive long runs in Off Broadway houses, while much worthier plays go unproduced. While Mr. Lesser and the bits of humor with which he is involved are quite enjoyable, the balance of the uninvolving drama and the unimpressive performances that surround him make it difficult to recommend this production. Stay home and watch Seinfeld reruns instead.
Production Details:
2 1/2 Jews by Alan Brandt
2 1/2 Jews Productions, LLC, in association with The Ensemble
Theatre
The Metro Theatre, Scottsdale (For
a map to this location, click this
link)
(480) 874-0806
January 19th - February 4th, 2001