Page 16 THE VILLADOM TIMES I, II, III & IV • March 3, 2010 Paper Mill Playhouse presents ‘Lost in Yonkers’ by Dennis Seuling “Lost in Yonkers,” now on stage at Millburn’s Paper Mill Playhouse, is set in a New York City suburb during World War II. The action takes place in the early 1940s in an apartment above a candy store/soda fountain owned by Grandma Kurnitz (Rosemary Prinz), matriarch of a JewishAmerican family of middle-aged children in whom she still inspires childhood fears, insecurities, and respect. Grandma lives with daughter Bella (Sara Surrey), a woman with a big heart whose childhood bout with scarlet fever left her minimally mentally challenged. She tends to get confused easily. One of Grandma Kurnitz’s sons, Eddie (John Plumpis), comes to the apartment one day with his sons Jay (Alex Wyse) and Arty (Maxwell Beer). Having borrowed money from a loan shark to pay for his nowdeceased wife’s cancer treatment, Eddie is in over his head financially. The war has given him the opportunity to pay back the debt by buying and selling scrap metal, but the job will keep him away from home for close to a year. The only place he can leave the boys is with his mother, an elderly widow hardened by a tough life in Germany and the death of two children. Grandma is opposed to the idea of looking after two teenagers, but Bella is thrilled. The boys will be company for her and enliven things. Unlike Grandma, Bella is a warm, hugging person who loves to go the movies to escape Maxwell Beer, Alex Wyse, and Sara Surrey in ‘Lost in Yonkers.’ into fantasy worlds. She is her mother’s caretaker, on hand to cook, clean, and give her mother back rubs. Her outward exuberance masks an inner sadness that is revealed as the play unfolds. There is another son, Louie (J. Anthony Crane), a lowechelon, gun-toting gangster who comes to hide out at the apartment and is always nervously looking out the window. The boys are intrigued by Louie, the one son who was able to stand up to his mother’s discipline as a kid, yet learned to respect her iron will. Author Neil Simon has built a successful career with smart plays featuring glib characters spouting one-liners in machine-gun fashion. “Lost in Yonkers” is a rich play with considerably deeper characterization than Simon’s earlier works. The audience gets to know and understand these characters. Happenings are mostly filtered through the eyes of Jay and Arty, who have the best comic dialogue. Wyse and Beer have excellent comic timing and know how to milk every line, master every facial expression, and parlay every reaction into laughs. They are both fine actors and their Jay and Arty are sideline, often integral, observers of their dysfunctional relatives. Surrey’s Bella is a compelling character. Surrey manages to balance this woman’s beautifully comic elements with her deep-rooted concerns and her clear insight into human needs. Treated like a child her whole life, Bella, now 35, yearns for an emotional connection she never received from her mother. Rather than being bitter, she looks to a happier future with revised household rules. Surrey makes Bella the most vivid, likable character in the production. (continued on Crossword page) at one of the FINE RESAURTANTS advertised in The Villadom TIMES Make Reservations Now!