THE BASICS: World Premiere of a new holiday show by Tom Dudzick, a former Buffalonian – see Facebook. It provides an all-new back story for an actual, oddball Buffalo landmark—“Our Lady of Seneca Street”–a seventeen foot high shrine to the Blessed Mother built by barber Joseph Battaglia in 1950. Dudzick himself directs the cast of four. The show runs weekends at the Kavinoky Theatre through December 8th. It is about 90 minutes long, and is performed without an intermission.
THUMBNAIL SKETCH: The action takes place in Buffalo on Christmas Eve, 2010. A meeting of the Nowak family has been called by daughter Ruth, whose designs upon a theatrical career are now centered upon an old family legend—the supposed visitation of the Virgin Mary to Grandpa at his East Side barber shop in 1942. Grandpa’s daughter Clara has been the keeper of the flame for some 50 years, tending to this decidedly non-official religious site, banking donations and doling out free soup there twice a week. The “miracle” has defined Clara and her three children to a considerable extent, so when daughter Ruth decides to at last divulge the true story of the seminal events, and how she has come by it, it’s as though a volcano has erupted right in the house! Playwright Dudzick has a couple of wild and wooly secrets to divulge, but don’t worry, I’m not going to tell!
THE PLAY, THE PLAYERS AND THE PRODUCTION: Ellen Horst, as the old-school, tow-the-line mother, Clara, spends the evening wrestling with an undecipherable and unnecessary accent—we discover that her character has been in America from infancy. Her wordless reactions to the others do provoke a steady stream of laughs. Bonnie Jean Taylor as the ambitious, forward-looking Ruth is perky but precious, stagey. Charmagne Chi as the critical, conventional daughter Beverly is too “big” and strident by half. The only cast member I really liked was Ben Puglisi, and the unprepossessing brother, Jimmy. No playing-to-the-house theatrics here; the performance is well judged, and rings true. Dudzick’s play seems to be a pretty shallow laugh-fest, on the face of it. As I mulled things over, however, I realized that there is some interesting material here, but it has been relegated to the role of skeleton-in-the-closet. The intriguing story, Grandpa’s, never gets dramatized, and, even worse, he never even gets the chance to tell it. Back up the action ten or fifteen years, have both grandparents still alive and Grandpa on his deathbed, and who knows how good this might have been. As it is, we have innocuous laughs built upon all kinds of stereotyping. Sidebar: Dudzick’s trivialization of Judaism will probably not be offputting to anyone but practicing Jews. If you do fall into the latter category, consider yourself warned.
David King has designed yet another beautiful set for this show, and it’s been well lit by Brian Cavanaugh. Sorry to have to play the Grinch here, but I cannot in conscience give this one more than…
ONE BUFFALO: This means trouble. A dreadful play, a highly flawed production, or both. Unless there is some really compelling reason for you to attend (i.e. you are the parent of someone who is in it), give this show a wide berth.
TWO BUFFALOS: Passable, but no great shakes. Either the production is pretty far off base, or the play itself is problematic. Unless you are the sort of person who’s happy just going to the theater, you might look around for something else.
THREE BUFFALOS: I still have my issues, but this is a pretty darn good night at the theater. If you don’t go in with huge expectations, you will probably be pleased.
FOUR BUFFALOS: Both the production and the play are of high caliber. If the genre/content are up your alley, I would make a real effort to attend.
FIVE BUFFALOS: Truly superb–a rare rating. Comedies that leave you weak with laughter, dramas that really touch the heart. Provided that this is the kind of show you like, you’d be a fool to miss it!