“Over the River and Through the Woods” gets a strong if sentimental staging at Golden’s Miners Alley Playhouse that suffers only from coming so soon after last year’s too similar, and similarly cast, comedy, “Beau Jest.”
That was the story of a Jewish girl who hires an escort to convince her traditional parents that her boyfriend is of the same faith. It was a showcase for veteran actors Sue Leiser and Roger L. Simon as the quintessentially meddlesome Jewish parents.
In “Over the River,” they’re the quintessentially meddlesome Italian Catholic parents. And the performances are virtually indistinguishable.
Emily Norman has gone from playing their Jewish daughter to the Irish love interest they have in mind for their grandson (Chris Bleau, who the last time played the fake Jewish boyfriend).
Now . . . everybody’s Catholic! Only, they’re not.
The religious foundations are too dissimilar to justify putting virtually the same cast on stage convincingly. These roles are not interchangeable, and neither should be the performances.
“Over the River” is a sweet intergenerational family comedy by Joe DiPietro (“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”). Nick (Bleau) is a single, 29-year-old Italian-American New Yorker who has the rare pleasure (and aggravation) of visiting both sets of grandparents every Sunday for dinner in nearby Hoboken.
This routine, which he never fully appreciates, is threatened when he’s offered his dream job in Seattle. That sets the old folks scheming to give their boy a reason to stay: his dream girl.
The problem with this script is that it includes characters under age 75. The grandparents — Nunzio and Emma (Simon and Leiser), and Frank and Aida (Bob and Wendy Moore) — are some kind of wonderful. They’re loud, loving, jovial and vibrant, and the actors bring them to tender life on the stage.
Simon and Leiser have a comfortable comedic rapport they have honed over years together on the stage. The Moores go them one better — they’re partners on stage and off. They all know how to elicit a laugh, and how to get at your heartstrings.
But the youngsters are less gracefully written. Nick is an immature ingrate; Caitlin is as recyclable as cardboard.
The pleasant surprise of director Rick Bernstein’s staging is how Bleau somewhat redeems jerky Nick. That you don’t want to, say, punch him in the face for the way he talks to elders whose cheeks you just want to pinch, speaks to an easygoing performance by the likable Bleau, who is fast turning into Miners Alley’s go-to romantic guy.
While “River” is lighthearted, it doesn’t surrender to a predictable outcome. That’s why it hits on all emotional cylinders by the end, when our four senior actors are at their best.
The play is an obvious lesson on priorities, on appreciating having living grandparents into adulthood, on properly defining happiness. In our modern world, people make the difficult decision to choose ambition over family proximity every day.
But you pay the price the day the phone rings and you learn the chance to one day re-bridge that gap has gone.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Over the River and Through the Woods” **1/2 (out of four stars)
Multigenerational drama Miners Alley Playhouse, 1224 Washington Ave., Golden. Written by Joe DiPietro. Directed by Rick Bernstein. 2 hours, 5 minutes. Through July 19. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 6 p.m. Sundays. $20. 303-935-3044 or
