CurtainUp
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CurtainUp The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings |
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A CurtainUp Connecticut Review
Napoli, Brooklyn
Directed by Gordon Edelstein at freight-train pace, this is a melting pot affair with the two titular locations as bellwethers of a cultural clash. An Italian family — Luda and Nic Muscolino from the old country and their three American-born daughters— must learn to deal with an assimilated Irish butcher, his daughter and an African-American woman. That playwright Kennedy has more than a domestic drama in mind may be gleaned from the program notes by the theater's literary manager, Christine Scarfuto. "In the early 1960s," she writes, "the nation was on the precipice of great social change — the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and the rejection of the social conformity of the 1950s would soon rock the country to its core." But the play, written TV style with many short scenes, avoids those issues. Rather, it's more akin to the kinds of slice-of-life plays that dotted the theatrical landscape in times past, with characters trying to make it in the new world as generations try to bridge gaps. Of the Muscolino daughters, Francesca's having a lesbian relationship with Irish neighbor, Connie. Tina is shy and illiterate but good-hearted, while rebellious Vita has been exiled to a convent after a serous altercation with her tyrannical pater familias who broke her nose. For all that's going on, there's no actual thread. This is a diffuse, episodic work that lacks a clear, central line of development. All the audience has to hold onto, to engage with emotionally, is matriarch Luda Muscolino whose domain is the kitchen, a place where her closest companions are onions. As played by the excellent Alyssa Bresnahan, Luda tries to hold the family, and the play, together. But she's a device who, at the end, is unbelievably saddled with a tacked-on speech about how women have to be themselves. ("You are a woman and you are free.") At the end of the first act, an enormous plane crash devastates the neighborhood. (It actually happened, Dec. 16, 1960, when a United aircraft, having collided with a TWA flight, came down in Brooklyn.) The event seems to change lives: Tina's African-American co-worker, now-homeless Celia, moves in with the Muscolinos and father Nic becomes almost pleasant, for a short bit. But the changes are not integrated into the plot; they just happen. Despite a tension-filled, recriminatory dinner scene, the evening drifts from topic to topic: feminism, immigration, religion, prejudice, assimilation, etc. The cast is uniformly good, even when motivations are cloudy. Jordyn DiNatale, Christina Pumariega and Carolyn Braver are distinct sisters, while Graham Winton, Ryann Shane and Shirine Babb are sympathetic as the butcher, his daughter and Tina's co-worker. As Nic, the head-of-household, Jason Kolotouros struggles with an ill-defined character. Eugene Lee's set design is busy, encompassing kitchen (stove, no sink), bedroom, dining room, church, convent, factory, butcher shop. Jane Greenwood's costumes make the most of a nondescript time period. As for the plane crash, thanks to lighting designer Ben Stanton and sound designer Fitz Patton, it's startling and awakening. |
Search CurtainUp in the box below PRODUCTION NOTES Napoli, Brooklyn By Meghan Kennedy Directed by Gordon Edelstein CAST: Alyssa Bresnahan (Luda), Jordyn DiNatale (Francesca), Christina Pumariega (Tina), Carolyn Braver (Vita), Jason Kolotouros (Nic), Ryann Shane (Connie), Graham Winton (Albert / Radio Voice), Shirine Babb (Celia) Set Design: Eugene Lee Costume Design: Jane Greenwood Sound Design: Fitz Patton Production Stage Manager: Peter Wolf Assistant Stage Manager: Amy Patricia Stern Fight Directors: Rick Sordelet and Christian Kelly-Sordelet Hair and Wig Design: Tom Watson Makeup Design: Tommy Kurzman Dialect Coach: Stephen Gabis Casting by: Carrie Gardner Running Time: Act I: 60 minutes; Act II: 50 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, Conn., Feb. 16-March 12, 2017 Reviewed Feb. 24, 2017 REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
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