Nicky Silver: This Day Forward

Nicky Silver and the highly esteemed Vineyard Theater Company go together like love and marriage, so its fitting that Silver would write and Vineyard would present his latest, This Day Forward, about a marriage more at odds than evens and the distressed parents and distressing offspring of that emotionally isolated but until-death-did-them-part union.

Weve met Irene and Martin Resnick under different monickers. They were Rita and Ben in The Lyons, Silvers outrageously funny black comedy about a nuclear family facing the impending death of their patriarch with the widow-in-waiting wiling away his last hours selecting color schemes for her post-mortem redecoration of their home.

This Day Forward presents the bookends of that marriage, which starts in 1958 in the honeymoon suite at the St. Regis immediately after the wedding. The bridegroom, Martin (Martin Crane) an accountant whose family has gelt, is completely besotted with love for his bride Irene (Holley Fain) and is raring to consummate their union. And she? Not so much. She wants to talk, but not that fast. Their conversation is inane until she blurts out part of whats on her mind that she doesnt love him. But the worst is yet to come when she admits shes in love with Emil (Joe Tippett), a hardly-as-hunky-as-Marlons Stanley Kowalski Oy vey! who works in a gas station Ditto! and that she plans to go away with him when he arrives to get her. While Martin pretends to be duking it out with Emil, but is actually bribing him to disappear what else would you expect from an accountant? Melka (June Gable), an elderly European hotel maid, begs Irene to move to the suburbs with Martin and take Melka with her to clean the house and raise the children. Nu, so what happens? Irene goes off with Emil.

But not for long.

In the second act its 2004 and were in a Flatiron district loft where Irene and Martins gay son Noah (also played by Martin Crane) a theater director, is arguing with his companion Leo, ostensibly about Noahs moving to California but actually about whether Noah wants to dump Leo, when Noahs guilty, pill-popping sister Sheila, an interior designer, arrives. Irene? Irene (now played by June Gable) lives with Sheila in Connecticut. Irene has become a discombobulated septuagenarian-cum-foul-mouthed wandering widow who was discovered at JFK Airport sitting on the floor in her pajamas reading a Judy Blume book. Irene scooted off with Sheilas credit card after Sheila took her to visit a nursing home rather than to the Dollar Store, as Sheila had promised. Hurts are revealed. Irene and Martin were unhappy people and awful parents. And finally we learned what happened between Emil and Irene that caused her to stay with Martin rather than follow her heart. The resolution is terrific.

After the performance was over, I managed to get hold of the script of This Day Forward and read it. I thought it was wonderful and laughed more reading it than I had watching it be performed. Curious? No. What was the problem with this production? Mostly bad casting. And I didnt think Mark Brokaw, who created magic directing The Lyons made This Day Forward shine and sparkle the way it could and should have.

The role of Irene was made to order for Linda Lavin at any age. In the quiet of my studio I imagined Ms. Lavin delivering Silvers wonderful lines! Wow! No one can be a bitch as enticingly as she can. Her languid manner! Her mellifluous contralto! The way she saunters and slithers across the stage. Lavins genius is making mean, selfish women lovable. Martin Crane looked and sounded right as the grown up son, but was too skinny to play a rejected accountant. Theyre always short, overweight and sweat a lot. Emil needed beefing up. A little cutting couldnt have hurt this play either. Melka the maid talked too much had a strident voice. Her pilfering son, the waiter, (Andrew Burnap) was an unneeded distraction.

I was stunned by the brilliant incidental music that preceded each act. Before the first act, 1958 was represented by a mix of Count Basie (from the album "The Atomic Mr. Basie") and Herb Pomeroy (from the album "Life Is A Many Splendored Gig"). In Act 2, we heard a mix of John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and Chet Baker. Whoever made those selections, really has great taste.

Nicky Silver has written another great black comedy, but it was performed in too many dull shades of grey. Get the script and read it, and youll see exactly what I mean.

Ah, Linda Lavin, where are you? Nicky Silver needs you. I am convinced you can convince an audience that youre a 24-years old ditsy, quasi-virginal bitch.