It would be a pleasure to report that John Fedele, as author and leading actor in the play, was multi-talented. But despite some amusing moments, he was not outstanding in either capacity.
Robert Arcaro as the older brother was fine; but he tended to come across as a straight man to the author, who gave himself the best acting opportunities.
Tara Leigh performed well as the Irish newly-wed who disrupts the relationship between the two Italian brothers. Although she was model-beautiful, her character, as written, came across as a petulant, unreasonable bitch - clearly not the author's intention, but certainly his fault.
Rosalina Macisco played Fedele's Hispanic girlfriend without missing a note. She was especially wonderful portraying aggressive shyness while coming on to her partner. (Fedele was pretty wonderful in that situation, too.)
John LaGioia as the hypochondriacal, woman-chasing uncle (with an ulcer in him "bigger than the ozone hole") had a wonderful moment chasing away the ringing in his ears; but his character contributed almost nothing to the plot.
The director staged a pretty good fist-fight, crafted some amusing sight jokes, and generally kept things moving - although one suspects he may have forced the author to cut some scenes to the bone, which made for jerkiness and loss of credibility.
Sal Perrotta added excellent accouterments to his multiple-level set design of the family's home, which included an attic replete with an old crib, an electric fan, and some Christmas boughs - not touched, of course, but very nice.
Jeremy Kumin produced a few, brief, colored lighting effects; and Peter Janis included such perfect touches in his elaborate wardrobes and accessories as a bridesmaid's outfit which blared a symphony of clashing titty-pinks, topped by just the right beads.
The play, which might have been written generations ago, included a few more cheap-shot anti-queer remarks than were necessary to establish that the brothers were heterosexual. By the end of the play, after a lot of telegraphing about Dad not being the saint that Younger Brother thought he was, the author scraped off a smallish skillet of red herrings before finally serving up the obligatory family skeleton.
The resulting melodrama came nowhere near today's Menendez brothers' family standards.
Copyright 1999 Marshall Yaeger