Aliens Among Us
‘The Immigrant’ and ‘Great Expectations’ move merrily along
By Don Shirley
My ancestors arrived in America so long ago that no one remembers their stories. Maybe I enjoy more recent immigrant sagas so much because I never heard such tales from my own family chronicles. These narratives are often schmaltzy, yes, but they’re also naturally dramatic – or at least that’s true of the ones that are remembered.
Of course, fresh immigrant stories happen every day in L.A. This doesn’t necessarily invalidate the older stories. It can make them more relevant.
That’s what happens in the second act of the musical version of The Immigrant, now in its West Coast premiere at the Colony Theatre. As in the earlier, non-musical edition of Mark Harelik’s account of how his Russian Jewish grandparents fled pogroms and settled in small-town Texas a century ago, the first act follows the standard template – except that it takes place in rural America, not in a big city. We see Haskell and Leah Harelik (Christopher Guilmet, Monica Louwerens) gradually assimilated into an otherwise non-Jewish culture, with considerable help from the banker Milton (Joe J. Garcia) and his wife Ima (Cynthia Marty).
But deep in the second act, when you’d expect the story to settle peacefully into a happily-ever-after stupor, all hell breaks loose. As World War II approaches, the Hareliks – still the town’s only Jewish family, three decades after their arrival – host Milton and Ima at Shabbas dinner. The conversation turns to the desperate European Jews who are trying to escape from Hitler.
Haskell can’t stop talking about them. Milton tells Haskell to relax – he’s in America, safe and secure. Soon Milton is explaining that he was glad to help the Hareliks – but there is no way he (or by extension, America) could help the millions who now want refuge. Then he goes one step further – he accuses Haskell of insufficient gratitude. In this musical version, Steven M. Alper’s score (lyrics by Sarah Knapp) becomes increasingly jagged and atonal until Milton’s bitter tirade finally breaks into song, as he storms out of the Hareliks’ house.
There, in a nutshell, we’ve got the ingredients of the debate over immigration that still rages. The two men stop speaking to each other, until it’s literally too late – Haskell visits Milton again only when the older man is severely incapacitated and virtually speechless.
The next scene further reveals the cultural chasm that disturbs the complacency of melting-pot notions. The now-widowed Ima, talking to Leah, ignores Leah’s maternal concerns about her sons, who are fighting the war in Europe, in order to sing an obsessive solo about her late husband’s failure to turn to Jesus before he died. Surely those who don’t accept Jesus are going to hell, frets Ima, oblivious to the fact that she’s venting in front of a Jew.
These second-act scenes lift The Immigrant far above its own feel-good formulas. Hope Alexander’s staging, Dean Mora’s musical direction, and the cast bring professional luster and heartfelt conviction to each scene.
Great Expectations, a new musical based on the Dickens classic, is about another kind of migration – from 19th century British working class to leisure class. Jules Aaron’s direction and a strong cast make it work for a long time, but much of it feels like work – and unlike The Immigrant, this show’s second act is its downfall. After intermission, the novel’s convoluted plot is awkwardly compressed and rushed. Yet the narrative (adapted by Margaret Hoorneman, shaped by Brian
VanDerWilt and Steve Lozier) still must pause for the requisite songs (by Richard Winzeler and Steve Lane).
F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives. But then he wasn’t reviewing these two musicals.
The Immigrant, Colony Theatre, 555 N. Third St., Burbank, (818) 558-7000. ColonyTheatre.org. Closes May 4.
Great Expectations, Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 960-4442. greatexpectationsmusical.com. Closes April 27.
For more reviews by Don Shirley, see Stage listings.
Published: 04/16/2008
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT
