George Street Playhouse stages this Wendy Wasserstein comedy.
By: Stuart Duncan
There’s probably a good reason why George Street has slipped The Sisters Rosensweig onto the winter schedule. In truth, the Wendy Wasserstein comedy has been staged by half the community theaters in the area and, in a couple of cases, with great success. The current revival, directed by David Saint, is pleasant enough but breaks no new ground and has a few awkward casting decisions.
To review the situation: It is late summer of 1991, and we are in Sara Goode’s (née Rosensweig) elegant flat in Queen Anne’s Gate, London. It is her birthday, a big one actually, and her sisters Pfeni and Gorgeous have gathered to mark the occasion. The former is a magazine writer, once in the geo-political arena but now mostly travel; the other is a Newtown, Mass., housewife but has found a niche as a radio personality with hopes of hitting cable. Her gift for gab indicates it is a sure thing.
Sara has a sometime beau, or at least an escort, a bit of British-upper-lip gloss named Nicholas, who stands somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun. Pfeni has a sometime-lover named Geoffrey, a stage director, mostly of musicals and clearly capable of plugging into any electrical circuit on the continent. Sara also has a daughter, a bright little thing named Tess. She has her claws on a young revolutionary, Tom, who finds causes in hard-to-pronounce corners of the world but has not a clue about history or social achievements.
Into this melange-a-sept comes Mervyn Kant, a Bronx furrier who recently saved Geoffrey’s New York production by locating the proper faux furs at the proper price. He is in London for a few days and drops in, presumably to see Geoffrey. It is he, however, who juggles old memories, old values, old pride. In a play clearly focused on women, written by a feminist, it is Mervyn who gives the evening its pace. In every single production, if the audience likes Mervyn in the first act, the second act sings.
At George Street, the audience really likes Tim Jerome in the role. He, in turn, plays the part with great care, caressing it gently, never overplaying, timing it beautifully. Susan Clark plays Sara with such care that she misses some of the more lovable moments. June Gable so overplays the ostentatious Gorgeous as to become a caricature. Barbara Walsh come closest to the mark as the free-spirited Pfeni, vulnerable, yet independent.
Ali Marsh is a delight as the daughter, Tess, natural and open. Jeffrey Hayenga is particularly touching as the tortured Geoffrey. Wayne Wilcox plays Tom as if he had not yet read the script, and Robin Chadwick (Scrooge in several McCarter Christmas Carols) plays Nicholas as one-dimensional, which is what the script gives him.
R. Michael Miller’s set design is so elegant you want to find a rental agent and put down a bid. David Murin’s costumes seem about right, both for the decade and the country.
The Sisters Rosensweig continues at George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, through March 10. Performances: Tues.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 and 7 p.m.; March 2, 9, 2 p.m. Tickets cost $30-$45. For information, call (732) 246-7717. On the Web: www.georgestplayhouse.org