Travel back to 1940s New York City — and be prepared to laugh and cry your way along the storyline of the most-loved play by America’s most-published playwright.
On Friday, Pioneer Theatre Company will open Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers,” winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1991 Tony Award for Best Play.
Guest director Howard J. Millman is thrilled to be here and staging his favorite Simon play.
“He can somehow make you laugh the moment after you cry. He’s created some very rich and textured characters. I love Neil Simon,” said Millman.
The play is set in New York City during World War II and showcases a family’s struggle for survival, as well as each member’s various methods of attempting to maintain sanity and a sense of self.
Eddie (played by Chris Clavelli), a widower, leaves his two sons with his criminally strict and domineering mother to pursue an important job. This matriarch is anything but matronly; she continues to terrorize her cowering grandchildren well into their adult years.
“Simon’s writing is more about the rhythm than the accent, so it still ends up feeling very much like New Yorkers are speaking,” said Millman, who chose not to have his actors don accents. It’s a universal piece — a play about a family — so although the setting is very much a part of the story, it is also somewhat irrelevant.
And if anyone knows the way New Yorkers speak, it’s this director — he and Simon were raised in neighboring boroughs of New York City only four years apart.
“Lost in Yonkers” has a true ensemble cast, including 14-year-old Kooper Campbell, who plays the younger of the two transplanted boys, Arty.
Campbell started singing at age 5 and was cast in his first play at 7. He has been steadily acting since then, performing in nearly 20 plays and several films.
“I thrive on it,” Campbell said of his involvement with the theater. He is thrilled with the chance to work at Pioneer and is a little awed by the big New York actors, but not shy.
“I got tap-dance lessons backstage,” he said.
Campbell loves his role. It’s a kid playing a kid, so in some ways it’s not a stretch. But he’s playing a kid from a generation without computers, gaming consoles or the vast variety of television we have today, so this character is living in a whole different world.
“All you had was your imagination,” said Campbell.
And in this comedy/drama combination, Simon’s fully developed imagination is apparent. Millman has brought the cast together with his laidback, fun approach, and if we’re lucky, that will come through in the performance.
Lennie MahlerColleen Baum and Ibi Janko rehearse a scene for the media from Pioneer Theatre Company’s “Lost in Yonkers” during a photo shoot held last Tuesday at the Pioneer Memorial Theatre.
Lennie MahlerSam Osheroff, Kooper Campbell, and Chris Landis rehearse a scene for the media from Pioneer Theatre Company’s “Lost in Yonkers” during a photo shoot held last Tuesday at the Pioneer Memorial Theatre.