Daily News (Palo Alto Edition) Monday, September 26, 2005
MAGICAL PRODUCTION OF RIVALRY IN ‘BALLYHOO’
By John Angell Grant
«««« (Four Stars)
Is it a Christmas tree or a Chanukah bush decorating the living room of the Freitag-Levy family home in Atlanta in December 1939? So asks one question in Alfred Uhry’s engaging 1997 Tony winning comedy “The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” which opened in a radiant production over the weekend at Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City.
“Ballyhoo” tells an unusual story of rivalry between two fatherless 20-year-old female cousins competing over Ballyhoo, a big annual Jewish society ball in the south. The story is set simultaneously against a background of the 1939 Atlanta world premiere of “Gone With the Wind” and Hitler’s invasion of Poland.
The bulbs burn brightly in director Ann Kuchins’ heartfelt production. Nicole C. Hastings is magical as the manic college dropout with a secret, Lala Levy, who is unfamiliar with Passover. Jackie O’Keefe is her edgy mother, obsessed with upwardly mobile matchmaking in Southern Jewish society. Carolyn Ford Compton creates an amusing, dim-witted sister-in-law.
Carolyn Zola is very strong as Lala’s rival cousin, a grounded Wellesley undergrad paired unexpectedly with plebian Brooklynite Joe Farkas (the charismatic Anthony Silk.) Scene-stealer Bill D’Agostino gives the show a shot in the arm as effete, overbred Southern aristocrat Peachy Weil.
Set designer Hunter B. Jameson has created a warm upscale living room from the 1930’s, with Moorish touches in the architecture. “Ballyhoo” is about romance, survival and family values, and the search for Jewish identity in melting pot America.
It’s a great show as the weather cools and the holiday season approaches. It’s also the strongest Hillbarn production in recent memory.