Like ”I`m Not Rappaport” before it, Herb Gardner`s new Broadway play,
”Conversations With My Father,” teeters on the edge of becoming a messy and formulaic work.
One of its basic themes-a son`s stormy relationship with his father-already has been thoroughly covered in American drama by such different playwrights as Arthur Miller (”Death of a Salesman”) and Robert Anderson
(”I Never Sang for My Father”); and its setting, a downtown New York bar populated by haunting and colorful characters, has become a theatrical staple through such landmark works as Eugene O`Neill`s ”The Iceman Cometh.”
Another recurring dramatic theme-a Jew`s search for identity-also is explored, partly through lavish use of Yiddish phrases that are fondly recalled and translated by the play`s narrator.
Despite the familiarity of these elements in Gardner`s memory play, his
”Conversations,” now at the Royale Theatre, avoids schmaltz through the vigor of its characters and the eloquence of its dialogue.
The narrator`s irascible bartender father, brusquely portrayed by Judd Hirsch with a bitterness and frustration never far from rage, is a man made up of turbulent, conflicting forces. An immigrant eager to leave all traces of his heritage behind him in pursuit of the American dream, he vainly tries for success with any device he can use, including changing his own and his bar`s name to suit the fashion of the times.
Belaboring his wife and two sons and belittling the old Yiddish actor who rooms with them above the bar, Eddie the bartender is nonetheless a man of some grace, fiercely standing up to the thugs who want protection money from him and providing a day home for the Irish bookie, the nutty ex-cop and the blind old Jewish woman who are his regular customers.
His argument with the world, which finds expression in the demand that his sons stand up and fight all enemies, imagined or real, is insistent but not irritating, chiefly because Gardner makes Eddie into a gritty, complex character. Never endearing as a paternal figure, he is always understandable in his defiant personality.
Some moments in the production, directed by Daniel Sullivan (who also staged the Tony Award-winning ”Rappaport”), are too slickly staged and easily executed to capture their explosive anger, but otherwise the action moves convincingly and movingly between past and present in designer Tony Walton`s perfectly detailed barroom setting.
Tony Shalhoub, as the grownup son remembering his father, is a compassionate, soft-spoken stand-in for the playwright, and there is good work from all hands in the supporting cast, including David Margulies as the weary old actor still proud to proclaim his roots.
A strong contender for Tony honors this season, ”Conversations With My Father” makes a sturdy drama out of its well-worn ingredients.
