REVIEW: It was opening night on Friday at The George Street Playhouse (February 11, 2011). The play is Frank Gilroy's Pulitzer and Tony winning family drama "The Subject is Roses." This is a beautifully written play that was a ground breaker in 1964 in terms of dealing realistically with dysfunctional families when it premiered on Broadway. This is the story of a Bronx middle-class family of three; father, mother and their son. It is 1946, and the newly-discharged son has returned home after serving two years in the infantry...a survivor of the horrors of World War Two.
The setting is the kitchen and living room of the apartment. The apartment could be described as 'early shabby', however to Jackie Gleason's Ralph and Alice Kramden it would be a bit palatial. In the next two hours, we are like the neighbor with the ear, in this case also the eye, to the wall listening to the initial joy of parents in the safe return of the son, unlike other friends and neighbors who's children either died or were maimed in the war. The joy is short-lived as we quickly sense the tension between the parents. Do they despise each other? The tension quickly involves the son who is dealing with his quilt over his past and current relationship with his father.
The father, John Cleary, played perfectly by Lee Sellars, is an Irish Catholic business man (Coffee) who is dealing poorly with the 'rewards' of past infidelities (wife's sexual rejection), business decline and now the rejection of the church by the son. Mr. Sellars rides an emotional roller coaster in this outstanding performance. He comes to the Playhouse after two years on Broadway in the revival of "West Side Story."
The mother, Nettie Cleary, is played with great sensitivity by Stephanie Zimbalist. Nettie has contributed to the family dysfunction with overly strong ties to her mother and a handicapped cousin. Ms. Zimbalist is particularly effective in a second act scene with her son where she reminisces about what might have been in regard to marriage if she had chosen another suitor, including a baker from Paterson, New Jersey. Yes, this is the same Stephanie Zimbalist who starred with Pierce Brosnan in the 1980's popular tv series "Remington Steele." She is not cut from the same cloth as so many pretty faces that populate the tv screen-she may be as pretty, but she is foremost a wonderful first-rate actress. Nettie, is of course, overjoyed with the safe return of her son, and as she says:"I never doubted he'd do as well as anyone else." John Cleary replies; "Where he's concerned, you never doubted, period. If he came in right now and said he could fly, you'd help him out the window."
The son, Timmy Cleary, is played by Chris Wendelken, making his Equity debut. He is excellent in handling this very emotionally demanding role.
Simply,this is a very fine cast that makes you remember why live theater can be so special. This is an unforgettable stage experience. I urge you to see this event. Did I mention that even though the family has great moments of distress, it has many funny moments also?
A round of well earned applause to director Michael Mastro. The same for Artistic Director of the GSP David Saint, and the production staff led by Michael Schweikardt who designed the set, Esther Arroyo for costume design, Chris Bailey designed the very effective lighting and sound, and Thomas Clewell the Production Stage Manager. Read more about author Frank Gilroy below.
"The Subject Is Roses" will be playing until March 6, 2011 at the comfortable (Stadium style seating) George Street Playhouse at 9 Livingston Avenue in downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey. Excellent restaurants and plenty of parking just steps from the theater. Box Office: 732-246-7717 • www.GSPonline.org
Frank Gilroy was born on October 13, 1925 in New York City, the son of Bettina (née Vasti) and Frank B. Gilroy, a coffee broker. His father was Irish-American and his mother was of Italian and German descent. Gilroy lived in the Bronx for most of his childhood and attended DeWitt Clinton High School. He then enlisted in the army after graduation. He served two and a half years in the 89th Division where eighteen months were in the European Theatre. After the war, he attended Dartmouth College and received his B.A. with magna cum laude. Later in 1966, he would receive an honorary Doctor of Letters. He also received a grant from Dartmouth that allowed him to attend the Yale School of Drama.
Gilroy wrote in the Golden Age of Television for such shows as Playhouse 90, Westinghouse Studio One, The United States Steel Hour, Omnibus, Kraft Television Theatre, and Lux Video Theatre. His entrance to theatre was marked with his 1962 play Who'll Save the Plowboy? at the Phoenix Theatre in New York which won the OBIE Award. The play follows Albert Cobb, a man who once dreamed of owning a farm becoming a plowboy. He and his wife Helen are awaiting to be reunited fifteen years after World War II, along with Larry Doyle, the man who saved his life. The title comes from when they were in the war, and Albert was staked as bait by the Germans, and Larry kept shouting "Who'll Save the Plowboy?" until he finally crept out and saved him. May of 1964 saw the opening of The Subject Was Roses, which has been compared to Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.
That Summer, That Fall (1967) is a version of the Hippolytus-Phaedra story. The play is set in an Italian neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in an apartment complex. Gilroy's works include screenplays for the films Desperate Characters (starring Shirley MacLaine) and The Gallant Hours (starring James Cagney). He has also adapted his own plays for film, including The Subject Was Roses (starring Patricia Neal, Martin Sheen and Jack Albertson) and The Only Game in Town (starring Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty). His 1985 screenplay for The Gig (starring Cleavon Little and Wayne Rogers) has been adapted as a musical, with book, music, and lyrics by Douglas J. Cohen. A 2006 Off-Broadway presentation and recording by the York Theatre Company starred Karen Ziemba, Stephen Berger, Michele Pawk, and Michael McCormick. Gilroy has also written fiction, including the novel From Noon Till Three, which was adapted into a film starring Charles Bronson. In addition to writing the screenplay, Gilroy also directed the film. Gilroy also contributed to several TV westerns in the late 1950s, including Have Gun - Will Travel and Wanted: Dead or Alive. His later credits include a 1977 adaptation of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novel The Doorbell Rang as a television movie featuring Thayer David.
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