Review: Neil Simons' 'Lost in Yonkers' at Hartford Stage with Marsha Mason

The show: “Lost in Yonkers” at Hartford Stage

What makes it special?: Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning 1991 play by Neil Simon, starring and co-directed (with Rachel Alderman) by four-time Oscar nominee Marsha Mason, an expert interpreter of Simon’s works. (She was also married to him for 10 years.)

Personal note: Frankly I forgot how good this play is. Yes, the exposition in the opening scene isn’t particularly elegant and its structure is perhaps a bit schematic and one role is woefully underwritten, but I didn’t anticipate the heady pleasure I felt to be in the presence of such a well-made play shaped by a master craftsman.

After seeing so many works about big ideas and important theme and major issues, it was like a breath of fresh air — no, it was an innovation — to simply be an intimate part of this real-but-not-really family on stage and become invested in these very human, flawed characters in a work of wit and heart and yes, seriousness, too. It just might be my favorite Connecticut production of the season. Hail Simon, and Mason, too.

What’s to about?: Deeply in debt to pay for his diseased wife’s cancer treatment and seeking a better financial future for his boys , a father leaves his two young sons in the care of the boys’ stern German grandmother — a Jewish refugee — and “stern” is putting it lightly. It’s far from a happy home in this 1942 Yonkers apartment over the family’s ice cream and candy shop.,

Also living in the apartment — and I wasn’t a fan of the set which looked more like a door-slamming design for a French farce — is the boys’ slightly mentally-impaired, mid-30s Aunt Bella who also slavishly tends to the needs of the older woman. Bella offers some kindness, affection and fun for the kids. But even the child-like Bella is terrorized by the steely old woman. Ditto her siblings — a shady brother who stays for a while and offers another side of there clan to the boys, and a married sister whose breathing afflictions only flare up when she visits here mother.

As the emotionally- starved Bella, Andrea Syglowski is terrific and perfectly modulated too make her inevitable clash with her mother a stunner. It is one of the great theatrical cri de coe. In the showy role of the charismatic, maybe-bagman-for-the-mob uncle, Michael Nathanson shows the flash but also the realness as brother Louie and makes the most of an pivotal scene with the boys. In the role of sister Gert, Lisa Vaynberg gets big laughs but the character is more than a sketch character and a plot point . As the boys, Hayden Berry as older sibling Jay and Gabriel Amoroso as Arty show both savviness and sensitivity about their characters , while swinging at Simon’s line like old pro hitters.

I was also mightily impressed by Jeff Skowron as the father, a role that on the surface might not be as showy as the others but whose authenticity grounds the whole production from the start. Skowron’s Eddie is filled with mixed emotions of fear, pride, humility, abandonment, grief, duty, and — underlying it all — deep love for his sons. His letters to home speeches between scenes could be seen as little throwaway moments in order for a costume change but here they were funny, touching and just right.

Finally, there’s Mason’s stunning performance as Grandma Kurtitz (her first name is not mentioned and that is fine with her). Mason is true to every inch of the character’s frozen core, never sentimental, nor seeking audience sympathy. (That goes for the overall cast under the direction of Mason and Alderman.) This refugee’s hard story and attitude get their due as she justifies her actions and life from a perspective that many of our ancestors held, too. The play’s resolutions may seem a bit pat but Simon presents them logically, and well. If this family turns out not to be the the Jewish Tyrones, well , that wasn't such a terrible thing either.

Who will like it?: Fans of Neil Simon, natch. And Marsha Mason, too (and count me as an admirer of her wide ranging work over the decades). But really this is a work that should appeal to those who are drawn to touching family stories, told with humor, heart and a few surprises.

Who won’t?: Perhaps those who (mistakingly) view all of Neil Simon’s works as old-fashioned or not relevant. Those who might find some of these characters disturbingly a little bit too close to home.

For the kids?: Smart youngsters eight and up should appreciate this story which is also about the hopes, fears, laughs and tears of two boys trying to keep it together during a family crisis.

Another personal note: I’m sure I’m not the only person in the audience to find the physical resemblance of this old world grandmother to be strikingly similar to a relative of their own. My grandmother fortunately was the exact opposite of Simon’s creation and very loving. Still the physical similarity was so startling — Mason and I share the same half-heritage — that I became quite verklempt at her first entrance.

That’s what great family plays do when they’re handled with care: they sneak up through shared reference points, and then grab hold of you and dont let go.. The details in mannerisms, authenticity of accent and shattering silences offered by Mason simply shows a masterful actor at the height of her craft.