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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Good People
It may sound like two hours of the "dismal science," but you can keep all those great expectations you've brought in with you, because they'll all be amply rewarded. Seth Gordon directs this story of an irresistible "Southie" woman from the blue-collar side of Boston (Denise Cormier). And, over the course of two hours, she pushes on, even when it seems she's born to be stripped of every tiny success that comes her way. Is it funny? You bet. Touching? Yes. Frightening? Very much so. And yet, like any good Dickens yarn, every bit as harrowing, and uplifting, and unexpected, too. It all starts out in a grimy alley behind a dollar store where Margaret (Ms. Cormier) is getting fired from a lousy job by her anguished but businesslike boss, played by Aaron Orion Baker. Wracking her brains for another way to keep a roof over her daughter's head, she begins a feisty journey to one of the nicest parts of Boston (Chestnut Hill) and an exceedingly tricky confrontation with a Southie boy who made good. Their whole second act resonates with a whimsical sense of conspiracy and even a strangely charming kind of sexual despotism (in spite of the dire ramifications). Before that, though, we learn a lot about the disparate moral templates of the rich and the poor—Margaret's handicapped daughter blasts "Judge Judy" through their rooming house (a fantasy on judgment and retribution) and later Margaret will meet her old flame (the perfect leading man—on the surface—R. Ward Duffy), who at least seems to let a high-priced marriage counselor define his own moral landscape. But, one way or another, it's the story of burgeoning empire, not terribly different from the way Dickens or Shaw might have told it, if they'd had a Lindsay-Abaire's modern sense of humor. We first meet Mr. Duffy's character Mike (who runs a high-priced fertility clinic) in a steel-and-glass office, with an overwhelming view of downtown Boston. Margaret is at once clever and pathetic, trading quips and memories with this silver-fox doctor and, one way or another, she ends up in his perfect home, with his perfect wife and child, in the second half. There's a brilliant awkwardness, a fumbling for the truth with numbed fingertips, all the way through, and lots of bracing talk closing in on the most unspeakable topic in America: social standing and economic class. And Mr. Duffy's young on-stage wife Kate (the quietly tragic, and delightful, Zoey Martinson) has some pretty memorable throwaway lines to fill-out their relationship as well. But the flashiest verbal swordplay is still between Margaret and Mike. Most of the women I know will delight in her ability to put him in the hot-seat, now and then. Andrea Gallo and Elizabeth Ann Townsend, as Dottie and Jean, are hilarious, too, helping Margaret thrash her way through to the truth, from that rooming house kitchen, and a church basement where they huddle over a slew of bingo cards. In the end, we have to decide how our economy really works, given the inevitable human element—and whether the "Melting Pot" theory of American Exceptionalism is really all it's cracked-up to be—if anyone ever really rises to greatness, without some sort of gross malfeasance. And yet, somehow, great artists put it all in perspective: the pain and the privilege; along with the shared martyrdom of kindred spirits. A consistently surprising and outstanding show. Through January 27, 2013, at the Browning Mainstage of the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, 130 Edgar Rd. in Webster Groves, MO. For more information visit www.repstl.org or call (314) 968-4925. Cast Production Credits Photo by Jerry Naunheim, Jr.
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