Theater review: ‘Lost in Yonkers’ falls awkwardly behind the times at Hartford Stage

One unexpected programming gambit of the new Hartford Stage regime of artistic director Melia Bensussen and managing director Cynthia Rider is the exploration of the classic American family-based melodrama, a type of play that dominated American theater in the 20th century.

One of Bensussen’s predecessors, Michael Wilson, went there, reviving interest in the works of Horton Foote and some tamer, lesser-known Tennessee Williams plays. Now Hartford Stage is offering Neil Simon’s 1991 Pulitzer-Prize winning “Lost in Yonkers,” but unfortunately this time there is no elevation, no revitalization, no revelation.

Hartford Stage’s season-opening production of “Ah, Wilderness!” — another family-rooted, semi-autobiographical melodrama — was more carefully thought through in terms of how it could be made relevant and emotionally resonant for modern audiences.

But this “Lost in Yonkers” is not a fresh look. It’s also not as well done as the original 30 years ago. The script doesn’t make a good case for itself as being newly relevant or timeless or universal. When “Lost in Yonkers” first premiered, Simon was praised for adding gravitas and depth to his accustomed warm comic style. Now the equation seems reversed and what jumps out are the awkwardly placed, often insensitive and insubstantial wisecracks and sight gags.

Marsha Mason first worked with Neil Simon when cast in his Chekovian comedy-with-music “The Good Doctor” in 1974, was married to him from 1973-83 and was nominated for Oscars for her starring roles in three of his movies, most importantly “The Goodbye Girl.” Mason stars in this “Lost in Yonkers” as the imperious Grandma Kurnitz, who begrudgingly lets her 13- and 15-year-old grandsons Arty and Jay stay with her so their father can travel to work off the debts from the boys’ late mother’s cancer treatments.

Mason also co-directs the play with Hartford Stage artistic associate Rachel Alderman, whose credits at the theater include “Cry It Out” and collaborating on the Christmas offerings “A Christmas Carol,” “A Community Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Given the family-friendliness of most of Alderman’s local endeavors, the lack of an ensemble feel here is remarkable. As for Mason, she sets herself at odds with just about everyone else on stage, finding her own rhythm and volume and rarely interacting convincingly with those she is speaking to.

Simon was inspired to write “Lost in Yonkers” based on some family lore about an uncle with vague connections to the Mafia. The playwright imagined a scenario in which characters loosely based on his brother and himself spend 1941 having lost their mother, being apart from their father for months, living with an intimidating octogenarian grandmother, working in her candy store and having bizarre encounters with their petty hoodlum uncle. It’s a coming-of-age saga with comic situations that are unlike any other coming-of-age sagas you are likely to see.

There’s another central character in “Lost in Yonkers”: Arty and Jay’s mentally impaired Aunt Bella, who is not based on anyone Simon knew. In his 1999 memoir, Simon, describing the character, says Bella’s “growth as a human being was stunted. She became a 15-year-old child in the body of a 38-year-old woman, with all the desires and needs of a mature woman, but with the inability to understand these desires.”

If that description sounds like lightweight pop psychology, it especially plays that way today.

Too much of “Lost in Yonkers” is simplistic and surface-level. World War II is used as the shared generational cultural experience it once was but no longer is, a basic backdrop used to explain both how the boys’ father can get a well-paying job and how everybody seems uncertain about the future. It’s a misty mood, not a detailed backdrop.

In fact, there is also lax attention to period detail. For example, a sofa bed doesn’t fit the time period. Yes, this is the sort of production that makes one’s mind wander to such questions as “I wonder when the sofa bed was invented?” Not a good sign. In other respects, however, Lauren Helpern’s set design is the best thing about this show. It’s bright and glowing and open and frisky. If only the performers could match its verve.

The performances in “Lost in Yonkers” are all over the place. Some of the characters (like Liba Vaynberg’s Gert) are reduced to a single recurring joke. Some actors, like the wide-shouldered Michael Nathanson as the burly, bumptious Uncle Louie, play broadly, while Mason underplays severely as Grandma. Andrea Syglowski as Bella seems to change her style based on who she is talking to. The children (Gabriel Amoroso as Arty and Hayden Bercy as Jay) perform by rote and talk too fast, a disappointment at a theater that has done exemplary work with young actors in recent years for “A Christmas Carol” and “Make Believe.”

Not only do the family members barely seem related, they seem to come from different plays, unable to find a consistent tones and style. Perhaps Hartford Stage is the wrong space for it, with a thrust stage that doesn’t neatly accommodate old-fashioned proscenium-style living room sets.

But the depth of writing is the main issue. “Lost in Yonkers” may be charming nostalgia for some, but it doesn’t make a great case for continued relevance. We simply don’t look at dysfunctional families and damaged characters this way anymore. In the writing, Simon seems strangely unconfident, inserting cheap jokes late in the show where they’re not needed, desperate to make sure there are laughs even when they undercut the dramatic tension.

“Lost in Yonkers” exists in a strange nostalgic vacuum, not of when it is set but when it was written. If you liked the 1991 Broadway production you will likely like it now. But this is not an exercise in rediscovery, or a successful attempt to reassess a once-popular playwright or build him a new pedestal. In fact, it shows us cracks in the old one.

“Lost in Yonkers” by Neil Simon, starring Marsha Mason and co-directed by Mason and Rachel Alderman, runs through May 1 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at , with added matinees $30-$100. hartfordstage.org.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at [email protected].