THEATER: 'Lost in Yonkers' opens at Hartford Stage
Apr. 14—HARTFORD — Neil Simon's Pulitzer Prize winning play, "Lost in Yonkers," opens tonight, April 14, at Hartford Stage, featuring long-time collaborator and Simon's ex-wife, Marsha Mason.
The two-time Golden Globe winner — for best actress in a motion picture drama for "Cinderella Liberty" and best actress in a motion picture comedy or musical for "The Goodbye Girl" — and four-time Oscar nominee is not only starring in the play, but is co-directing alongside theater Artistic Producer Rachel Alderman.
"It was nerve wracking," Mason said last week, the day after their first preview performance, "but we got through it. We're on our way to having a wonderful opening."
Mason met Simon in 1973, not long after Simon's first wife, Joan Baim, died of bone cancer.
"I did the Broadway production of 'The Good Doctor' and we married three weeks later," Mason said.
"Lost in Yonkers"
Where: Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford.
When: Tonight, April 14: Opening night
Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (matinee): Post-show conversations.
Sunday, April 24, 2 p.m.: Open captioned performance.
Saturday, April 30, 2 p.m.: Audio-described performance.
About the play: Two teenage Brooklyn brothers are sent to stay with their formidable, unwelcoming grandmother and their uncle, an overexitable small-time hoodlum, in Yonkers. The award-winning play spotlights the power of a resilent family.
Tickets: $30-$100; regular season student seats, $20.
Contact: Box office, 860-527-5151; hartfordstage.org
"I sometimes feel that there are moments when you meet someone that are spontaneously destined. That seemed to be the situation. What happened was, we finished a reading at the theater and we were taking a break and Neil walked behind my chair and he put his hands on my shoulders and I reached up instinctually and patted his hands three times and I got so flummoxed by the feeling. It was so normal, it was like I'd done it before.
"His daughters came to a preview and we gravitated to each other. One evening, the girls came to us and asked, 'Why doesn't Marsha move in?' It was a destined experience."
Mason and Simon were married for 10 years, but though divorced, Mason said, she still loves Simon's work.
"He seemed to understand issues of pain, abandonment, and yet find a funny way of being able to express that pain," she said. "I think that's why he was so successful. He had his finger on the pulse of the New York community and of course worldwide."
"Lost in Yonkers" premiered in North Carolina on New Year's Eve 1990 and opened on Broadway two months later, garnering Simon the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and won four Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play, and four Tony Awards, including Best Play.
The current production of "Lost in Yonkers" was originally conceived to be a co-production with Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, Mason said, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the production shifted to only Hartford Stage.
"I lost my assistant director in the original project, and Melia (Bensussen, artistic director of Hartford Stage) recommended Rachel," she said.
The collaboration proved to be fortuitous, as both women said there has been an uncommon synchronicity between the two.
"It's been very special," Mason said. "Just filled with this kind of grace. The play is big and even bigger than I ever imagined doing it."
"It's a joy to work with Marsha, what has been rewarding is that synchronicity from when we first started talking about the play, our impulses were so aligned," Alderman said. "When we were casting when one person would give a note the other person would say I was just about to say that. It's a complete joy. I'm so grateful."
Mason said having Alderman co-direct has allowed her to focus on playing the role of Grandma Kurnitz as opening approaches.
"I approached it with an open mind," she said. "I trust Rachel so much, I had a bit of a bump, and fell behind at the beginning. After last night, I feel like I can catch up with the other actors. Rachel has totally taken over once we moved to the theater. She understands the stage. She and Melia are fantastic partners. It's in totally good hands. I love all her notes and try to implement them as quickly as possible."
"What's so wonderful about Marsha is it's a great level of trust and transparency," Alderman said, "how we are working, to be open and honest about moments."
The role of Grandma Kurnitz is a role Mason has wanted to play.
"What I loved about the theater, is I still can find challenges to my craft," she said. "I think it's one of Neil's best plays."
Though written 32 years ago and set in 1942 during World War II, Mason said, the play speaks to a present day audience.
"The play speaks to all of the refugees and immigrants that came to this country," she said, "and what it's really like to leave your homeland and what that sense of abandonment is like. I think the play speaks in present tense and I'm very excited by that. It attests to the play's brilliance."
Alderman said she appreciates Simon's patience in letting the story develop organically with the characters as they grow into themselves, something that tends to be lost in current theater.
"You see the intricacies of this family," she said. "If it was written today, you'd have to find ways to make it smaller and shorter."
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