The pronunciation of the titular character's name in Daniel Goldfarb's seriocomic satire becomes a source of ridicule toward a young Jewish boy, whose classmates call him "atom bomb." Yet most of the denigration in this portrait of Jewish filmmakers in 1940s Hollywood is the self-hatred that overbearing studio mogul Samuel Baum (Richard Kind) inflicts upon his own culture. Based on a real-life encounter between producer Samuel Goldwyn and screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr., this 1999 play walks an uneasy tightrope between cynical social commentary and sentimentality. Nonetheless, veteran filmmaker Paul Mazursky helms a handsome and skillfully acted production.
The first act plays like a sitcom drenched in Borscht Belt sensibility. Samuel has hired gentile screenwriter Garfield Hampson Jr. (Hamish Linklater) to create a screenplay about anti-Semitism in the U.S., hoping to jettison the competition: producer Darryl Zanuck's then-filming Gentlemen's Agreement. Samuel had insisted a non-Jew must write it, and the reasons become clear when he starts tearing into Hampton's meticulously researched draft. Samuel doesn't want the Jewish characters to be too Jewish, and he's less interested in a hard-hitting film than in submerging lip-service social conscience within a formulaic Hollywood fantasy. Meanwhile, the ostensibly ultraliberal Hampton might not be as charitable a soul as he seems. The second act blends the showdown between the strong-headed men with the bar mitzvah ceremony of Samuel's son Adam (Gregory Mikurak), in which even Samuel's attempts at tenderness are tinged with bombast and calculation.
The play's abrupt shifts in tone would be less problematic if Goldfarb's script offered more-coherent ruminations on the challenges of immigrants in maintaining their cultural identity while assimilating into a sometimes-crass society. Thankfully, the gifted Kind elicits great fun in his appropriately broad portrayal, sinking his teeth into this role -- a hulking steamroller that passersby had best avoid. Linklater masters the droll exchanges with panache and is equally convincing in revealing his character's darker shadings. Mikurak is winsome as the bright and eager youth who craves his father's affection. Joel Daavid's production design beautifully conjures the time and place, while Traci McWain's costumes and Christopher Game's sound design further add to the aesthetic pleasures.
Presented by Gary Blumsack and Diana Hyams at the Hayworth Theatre,
2509 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.
Thu.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. (Dark Jul. 4-7.) Jun. 6-Jul. 20.
(323) 960-4442. www.plays411.com/jewmovie.