What's Old is New Again: Theater J's Lost in Yonkers

Hicken, as the tyrannical, steel-willed matriarch, first enters with a pronounced scowl that never leaves her face until near the play's end. Yet despite all of Grandma's standoffish ferocity, Hicken allows glimmers of the character's deep-seated fears and weaknesses – the reason she puts up the Queen Bitch front in the first place – to shine through. Similarly, Twyford's childlike Bella, a developmentally challenged adult of 35 going on 12, carries a wisdom with her that outpaces both her real and intellectual age. Simon makes all of this apparent in the play's climax, in a bitter confrontation as uncomfortable in its emotional nakedness as most of the rest of the play is clever and hilarious. But the nuances of these two performances throughout allow for the apparent transformation to be not just believable, but absolutely necessary.

The rest of the cast pales in comparison, though to be fair, Simon doesn't expend nearly as much effort making the supporting characters as rich as Grandma and Bella. Kevin Bergen is solid, if unremarkable, as Eddie, the somewhat weak-willed but loving father who leaves his kids in the care of a mother he seems to fear more than love while he travels the country selling scrap metal to aid the war effort. Marcus Kyd's Louie, a free wheeling small time crook with a soft spot for his dysfunctional family, is hindered by a distractingly inconsistent New York accent. The boys are passable, with Max Talisman as the younger brother, Arty, the more memorable of the two.

For good and for ill: Arty is the primary mouthpiece for Simon's crackling one-liners, and at least as often as Talisman dazzles with precocious comic timing, he distracts with deliveries that play far too broadly. Worse, he gives Arty a tendency toward ceaseless nervous fidgeting which begins to wear thin, especially at moments when Arty should blend into the background, but is instead offhandedly upstaging an emotional exchange going on between other characters.

Theater J's production – surprisingly, the first by a major company in D.C. since the original Broadway production was in previews here nearly 20 years ago – recognizes that Simon's themes still resonate, and makes no effort to update or shake up the playwright's work. His are plays which will probably forever resist non-traditional readings, as specifically as they are linked to the times and places he writes about. Director Jerry Whiddon wisely lets the wit of the writing serve as the guide and plays it straight in this unfussy production that succeeds largely on the strength of Simon's words and Hicken and Twyford's fantastic performances.

Lost in Yonkers runs until November 29 at Theater J. Purchase tickets here.