The Assembled Parties

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 12:11am

Saw this show tonight - very smart and brilliantly written. Clear winner for the Set Design by Santo Loquasto. Jessica Hecht and Judith Light are funny and gripping at the same time. Certainly makes a great case against Vanya for the Best Play this season.

Downside: Not clear as to what happened to characters Mort and Ben. The ending would have been greater if Richard Greenberg wrote having the Red Ruby necklace as present to Faye (Judith Light) from Julie (Jessica Hecht) and reveal that she secretly purchased the heirloom to protect family tradition. Now that would have been a TERRIFIC ending!

Vanya for me is still the one to beat.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 12:18am

I was there last night and didn't love it. It was very uneven at times. This is definitely not his best work, and I usually love him. Light was the standout for me (though Hecht was excellent in most of Act 2). I don't think it's going to challenge Vanya for the Best Play Tony though.

It wasn't clear what happened to Mort (though I think the assumption is supposed to be that he died), but I thought the implication was pretty clear that Ben died from the same thing Scotty died from... which I won't reveal here.

Overall, I thought it was FINE, but not stellar. And Jessica Hecht's ACT 2 dress drove me NUTS. Why did it have pockets?!

[greatwhiteway72]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 12:41am

Can anyone please post spoilers?? I'm extremely curious about the story.

[spanker]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 1:18am

Or post spoiler alerts.

Maybe I would have gone even though I now know that Greenberg didn't have the Red Ruby necklace as a present to Faye (Judith Light) from Julie (Jessica Hecht) and didn't reveal that she secretly purchased the heirloom to protect family tradition (and that the ending is the poorer for it). And that
"It wasn't clear what happened to Mort (though I think the assumption is supposed to be that he died), but I thought the implication was pretty clear that Ben died from the same thing Scotty died from... which I won't reveal here" (GEE, THANKS)"

But now that I know Jessica Hecht's ACT 2 dress has pockets - I probably won't go. I mean, where's the mystery now?





Updated On: 3/25/13 at 01:18 AM

[bjh2114]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 8:19am

Considering Act 1 takes place in the 1980 and Act 2 takes place in 2000 (a fact that is in the published synopsis of the show) and some of the characters are older adults in Act 1, I think it's pretty safe to assume that some of them will not be returning for Act 2 as their time will have passed. This is nothing that's central to the plot. It's not spoiling anything for you unless you're not intelligent enough to put 2 and 2 together on your own without someone teaching you how to add.

And spanker, while your sarcasm is HILARIOUS, I suggest that you zip your lip. When/if you see the show, you will (or hopefully should) understand why that dress having pockets is problematic for the time period. And if you don't, then clearly historical accuracy is not something that concerns you when you see theater. There is a whole section of Act 2 devoted to talking about how this dress was made, but never in a million years woud a dress in this style have had pockets. Just something that annoyed me, but go ahead and make fun of me for caring.

[daredevil]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 12:14pm

saw it Saturday night; would agree with ATo2, that it is a very fine play. Extremely funny in parts, but ultimately very human and moving---I think this is one of Greenberg's best plays (my other tow favorites are The Extra Man and The American Plan, so that should give you an idea of my taste).
Although it is not totally made clear, I think in the second act, one feels that Morty simply died of old age---Ben, who is only around fifty (if that much) in Act I, I gather had some sort of a breakdown after the death of Scotty---and then died very unhappy. It is never fleshed out, and his character, though likeable, I think is the least well drawn of the group in Act I.
For me, as a middle aged Jewish man, the play resonates with a sense of how secrets and visions of life are passed down from generation to generation. I think that it what Greenberg wanted to deal with, and that he did it very well.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 3/25/13 at 8:13pm

Why did the parties decide to assemble?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/26/13 at 4:43pm

It's not that they decided on it, they were trying to revive a tradition.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 3/26/13 at 5:43pm

I was actually just kidding. It is such a boring and uninspired title.

[grumpyoptimist]

Posted: 3/26/13 at 9:07pm

Seeing it late April. Looking forward to it.



Updated On: 3/26/13 at 09:07 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 3/26/13 at 11:45pm

Some affecting moments near the end, but overall, loquacious, hokey and soap opera-ish. Several characters and storylines seem underdeveloped and unfocused. It's not as aggresively annoying/obnoxious/dull as most of the author's works, but I wouldn't call it good, either. In evidence again here is the playwright's propensity for putting highfalutin' words and phrasing in the mouths of characters who would never utter anything of the like.

The acting struck me as a mixed bag, with some miscasting.

The set was excellent.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/27/13 at 10:09pm

Got around to seeing this tonight and was pretty mixed about it as well.

I was bored for the most part with the act one stuff in the 80s. It just felt like a lot of set up, and the payoff didn't equal the amount of preparation we had to endure.

Act two was much better, and I particularly enjoyed Judith Light's monologue near the end. Hecht hits a comedic stride somewhere in act two as well, and everything she said had me chuckling. These two remarkable actresses really save the play from being nothing at all.


SPOILERS***************

I knew right away that Scotty had died from AIDS, but I wanted more to that story. The blood transfusion seemed like just another lie the family would tell to hide the truth of some homosexual behavior. (I know people really did contract HIV from blood transfusions, but I felt it made the story underdeveloped.)
I expected to find out Alana(?) was fictitious or that Scott and Jeff were lovers; that would have been truly soapy!

I didn't think it was implied that Ben died from AIDS also, but that there was some mystery Faye wasn't fully explaining about his death. It was hard to care about Ben's character though, so I admittedly didn't put much thought into it.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 3/27/13 at 10:13pm

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

************************




Whizzer, I got the impression that Ben died of AIDS from the blood transfusion from Scotty. When the line "don't get a blood transfusion in the 80s" was spoken, I thought it was being spoken in reference to Ben. It seemed to me to imply that Scotty had AIDS (obtaining it while he was on his trip) and that Ben needed blood from Scotty and contracted the disease. Hence the repeated "how are you" awkwardness.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/27/13 at 10:27pm

SPOILERS******************

bjh, Ok that makes sense when you explain it like that. I assumed it was Scotty who had the blood transfusion and contracted HIV. How did Scotty become infected with HIV? He just had unsafe (heterosexual) sex on his trip to Africa?

[bjh2114]

Posted: 3/27/13 at 10:47pm

That's what I assumed. Whether it was hetero or homo, I think he contracted it in Africa from someone. I also think this probably had something to do with the Alana breakup.

[Tom-497]

Posted: 3/27/13 at 11:07pm

SPOILERS


As I remember/understood it, Judith Light's character says that there were various theories thrown around about why Scotty was sick in 1980, including the possibility of a "tropical disease" contracted in Africa, but nobody really knew.

In any event, he had a blood transfusion a year later, in 1981, as part of the attempted treatment for his unknown illness, got AIDS from the transfusion, and died ("Don't get a blood transfusion in 1981.").

After the death of his son, Ben went off the rails psychologically and died in a manner that I didn't think was specified or even strongly implied in the play, and may have happened many years later (because, apparently, Ben had pretty much ruined his career and run through most of the family's finances before dying, if I understood correctly).

Updated On: 3/27/13 at 11:07 PM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/27/13 at 11:11pm

Tom, That's what I initially thought happened, but it all seemed glossed over fairly quickly. I mean, in a way why would they have a need to discuss any of this in any sort of detail 20 years after it happened? Even though Jeff spent 5 years in Chicago, he stayed close enough to the family that he would have known about what happened to Ben, IMO.

[Tom-497]

Posted: 3/27/13 at 11:57pm

Those are good points. I wish I could remember better if there was any plausible reason suggested as to why Jeff wouldn't already know the various details, or why the other characters might have mentioned them again even though they knew Jeff was aware of them.

[Owen22]

Posted: 3/28/13 at 11:57am

SPOILER



I can't remember, does Morty accuse Ben of being with another woman or a man or is it left gender unspecific?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 12:31am

I saw the show tonight and My God, I loved it. I mean, I LOOOOOOVED it. I thought it was such a beautifully written story with equally beautiful performances throughout it. I don't get to as much theater as I'd like to anymore so I'm so so happy I made this a priority.

And just a note - I didn't notice anything with pockets in that dress, so maybe they took them out...?

[Tom-497]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 10:23am

I saw the show again last night, and I thought it was very good. To me, it held up well even without the suspense element that is there the first time you see something. And since the earlier previews, they've altered the staging of the play's last few moments to more effectively connect them to the first few moments.


SPOILERS

Regarding a few of the points above --

1) Ben admits there was another "woman," and I didn't get the sense in anything that followed that his statement was inaccurate. (Although who knows what Mort's polaroids might actually have shown?)

2) The dress does still have pockets -- Hecht stuck her hands in them a couple of times. They aren't too noticeable otherwise.

3) In my view, it's definite that the blood transfusion is what killed Scotty, and that it didn't involve Ben.

To paraphrase and abbreviate, Judith Light's character says: "He was straight and didn't do drugs. When he returned from Africa, the [impliedly smug, overconfident] 'New York' doctors said they'd take care of him. Don't ever get a blood transfusion in 1981."

4) I found the exposition in Act II regarding characters' fates to be well-handled and to arise pretty naturally from the circumstances of the various conversations.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/30/13 at 11:04am

SPOILERS





As far as the AIDS goes, I agree that there's no real reason to believe that Scotty didn't get it from a transfusion, BUT there was this moment where we first meet him where he refers to Jeff as "Babe". I heard that and thought that they must have been lovers and the girlfriend he talked about was just a "girlfriend" who didn't exist.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 3/31/13 at 8:43pm

Just got back from today's matinee. Hecht and Light gave stellar performances, and I found Santo's set pleasant and workable if not truly award-worthy. Otherwise, i'm sorry to say there wasn't as much to chew on as I'd hoped based on the above posts.

***MAJOR SPOILERS***

It seemed clear in my reading of the show that Scott was probably gay-- he stated emphatically that Liyana was in no way a serious girlfriend for him and was quite ready to palm her off on Jeff so he could head out on his own course. I still didn't buy Fay's words that he contracted HIV from a blood transfusion; I think this was just the tale she wanted to believe instead. Knowing the specifics of Scott's life in 1981 would have been a terrific emotional hook for the show had it been included.

***END SPOILERS***

Frankly the fact that all the posters above needed to parse the dialogue between them just to figure out the true outcomes of so many characters suggests to me that the play didn't carry out the basic tenet of any good drama to let us know what happens. Any Lifetime movie of the week at least gives us that much. Greenberg created some terrific dialogue passages, and some particularly lovely monologues for Judith Light's character (her Act II speech is a home run.) But for me that wasn't nearly enough of a payoff to merit the slog through the dry spells throughout the 2 1/2 hours. Sorry, Jordan. Wanted to love it as much as you, but this time not so much.

[Jamie Pierce]

Posted: 3/31/13 at 10:00pm

I saw the show and loved it, however, I must be dense because I need someone to explain the ruby necklace storyline. Can someone shed some (judith) light on this for me....?

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 3/31/13 at 10:39pm

*** MAJOR SPOILERS for J52's benefit***
Do NOT read if you're planning to see the show-- the speech Light gives regarding the ruby necklace is the absolute highpoint of the evening.

It's obvious to Fay that her mother Rivka's ruby necklace (brought with her from the shtetl) is paste. Despite this, Fay spends years longing to have her mother pass the necklace on to her, and then is distraught when Rivka gifts the necklace to Julie, Fay's glamorous famous sister-in-law whom Fay is expected to hate. We learned in Act I that Fay's husband Mort blackmailed Ben (Julie's husband and Fay's brother) to pretend that Rivka (now uncommunicative and near death) has a dying wish that the necklace be back in Fay's hands. Though borne of blackmail, the loving act of Julie passing the necklace back to Fay totally rewrites Fay's later years to love life again, and forge a lasting bond between Fay and Julie that gets them both through the loss of mates and family members.

The punchline for Fay is the necklace is in fact genuine, and selling the necklace buys Fay the means to support Julie in her lovely 14 room apartment in her later years. Those are the bare plot points-- thank God we had Richard Greenberg (and Judith Light) to turn this prose into poetry.

***END SPOILERS***

Updated On: 3/31/13 at 10:39 PM