"I just want someone who would love me," laments Sam, a 50-year-old Jewish hardware store owner, as he reflects on his lonely life. Although he finds someone to love, the central problem in Paul Manuel Kane's uneven drama is that Natalie, a black 20-year-old aspiring opera singer, never returns his affection, at least not in the way he wants her to. "All the attention you give me, it makes me feel uncomfortable," she says, inching away from Sam's persistent offerings.
Kane definitely hooked me with his loaded premise, expressed in the show's tagline: "He's Jewish, she's black, he's 50, she's 20, it's 1953." Sounds like a juicy soap opera. But romance requires a two-way connection, and that's not present here. Natalie is the assistant to Sam's cousin Rose, and Sam initially treats her like any other employee. He questions her dream of being an opera singer, and then, as if overnight, becomes creepily obsessed with her. Natalie does not reciprocate anything he says or does, though I couldn't quite determine her emotions, as Oni Brown gives a starkly one-note performance. While she's costumed like a 1950s Barbie doll, in perfectly pressed ensembles designed by Elizabeth Flores, clothing does not equal character. Brown speaks each line as if she were reading it directly off the page.
The other actors fare well with their roles. Ed Kershen is simultaneously sympathetic and borderline crazy as the love-struck Sam, and LeeAnne Hutchison delivers a muted but moving performance as Rose. Hillary Spector, however, underwhelms with her subdued direction, never allowing the little drama to crescendo. Characters lack motivation, and Sam is the only one who acts on what motivation he does have. Rose is stuck in a loveless marriage with war vet Joe (Todd Licea), who wants to open a jazz club. He uses this dream to thwart Rose's pleas for a baby, and neither goal is ever achieved. The couple lives in the basement of Sam's store, and they don't want Sam to become involved with anyone, for fear of losing their free rent. If she had to choose someone for him, Rose would pick Luba (an energetic and bumbling Neva Small), a semi-neurotic longtime customer who stops by before her weekly mahjong game and lights Sam's short fuse. Small is humorous in her few scenes, but her character's function is largely irrelevant.
When Sam starts going on about marriage proposals and gives Natalie a gold locket, he suggests that she fill it with facing pictures of him and her. The young woman, however, prefers to put her grandmother in Sam's place. When Rose suddenly fires Natalie, she goes quietly; her only qualm is that she won't have enough money for opera school.
The story's loose ends dangle like stray threads, and the play has one of the most abrupt conclusions I have ever experienced. A last-minute, unexpected twist ends the action, and the house goes dark before anything is resolved. Sam seems more like a stalker than a lover; at no point are he and Natalie in the intimate embrace the show's program advertises. If this play took place today, a chat room would be a more appropriate setting.
Presented by Janozak Productions at the Actors Temple Theatre, 339 W. 47th St., NYC. Opened June 5 for an open run. Wed., 3 p.m.; Thu. and Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (212) 239-6200, (800) 432-7250, or www.telecharge.com. Casting by Mark Simon Casting.