Saturday, May 18, 2013

Don't miss the fun @ THE ASSEMBLED PARTIES

To say ASSEMBLED PARTIES deals with family dysfunction would belie the humor, love, clever writing & brilliant cast put together in this sparkling play.  Richard Greenberg is the Tony & Drama Desk winning playwright.  Here, Greenberg has honed his writing skills to bring to life an ensemble of characters that we would love to have mingled among our family gatherings for lack of boredom.  They are not always tolerable, but they're all indelible and hilarious.  A Jewish family gathers together for an Xmas dinner, '80, in an enormous brown stone on the UWS of NYC.  Jeff, a Harvard law student & friend to the family's older son, Scotty, is the only non-member of the tribe.  Jeff ingratiates himself into this family in an obsequious but likeable manner.  Act II is also on Xmas day, 20 years later, in the same brownstone.  The 20 years have wrought many changes in the family dynamics.  Still, Jeff is the same affable ubiquitous outsider who established a very fortuitous career as a litigator.  I didn't want this party to end.  The lofty humor elevated my spirits.  The ingenious, rotating sets gives the illusion of a spacious brownstone.  After all these years of theatre going…did I love this show?  Yes, and it's nice to know.  AMEN.

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