Alfred Uhry's Tony winner for best play explores his ancestry: German Jews who emigrated to the United States Deep South in the 1840s, made fortunes in business, and assimilated into high society. Here, the family is the Freitags: Adolph (Michael Rothhaar), who never married; his sister Boo (Ellen Crawford) and her daughter, Lala (Stacy Barnhisel); and Adolph and Boo's sister-in-law Reba (Michele Marsh) and her daughter, Sunny (Kate Steele). Much of Ballyhoo concerns Boo's running battle for respect for Lala, an impractical romantic more concerned with the world premiere of Gone With the Wind just a few miles away, in downtown Atlanta, than with making something of herself like her cousin.
Uhry shows the prejudice of this clan and their peers for "the other kind" -- namely, Jews of Russian or Eastern European descent, whom they consider socially undesirable. The family is forced to confront its prejudices when Adolph hires an "other": a handsome young New Yorker named Joe (Gregory Sims) who's attracted to the shapely, blond intellectual Sunny but baffled by her seeming desire to "camouflage" her Judaism.
The character-based script deftly merges its sociological subtext with breezy humor born of family bickering, and director Jules Aaron's cast gets their roles' laugh lines as well as the more subtle aspects of the play. Sunny and Joe are more evolved than those around them, and Steele and Sims show that this is what pulls them together. Rothhaar's Adolph is laid-back and unflappable, a beacon of calm wisdom. Crawford's control-freak Boo is pinched and driven. Marsh's Reba is pleasant and unruffled but nondescript. Barnhisel delivers Lala's flightiness and seething resentment of Sunny but fails to show the deep sadness and emptiness that connects these traits. James Leo Ryan adds uncouth slobbery to the live-wire persona of Lala's would-be beau, Peachy. John Iacovelli's lavish set lends credibility to the Freitag clan's life of ease.
Presented by McCoy Rigby Entertainment at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts,
14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada.
Tue.-Thu. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 & 8 p.m., Sun. 2 & 7 p.m. June 6-22.
(562) 944-9801. www.lamiradatheatre.com