THEATER REVIEW: THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE

Mel Edison (Jason Alexander) in The Prisoner on Second Avenue.

A road of broken dreams

By Ed Rampell

I decided to take a break from all the political theater I’ve been reviewing lately and to go see some purely escapist entertainment, so I attended the premiere of The Prisoner of Second Avenue, a period piece set in early 1970s New York. I mean, it’s written by bourgeois lightweight Neil Simon and starring Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander; I’ll just be able to kick back, put my mind in neutral and laugh my head off. Right?

Wrong. On second look The Prisoner of Second Avenue is not only full of serious themes, but it has a political subtext. Alexander’s Mel Edison is one Manhattanite who doesn’t see the light. During the course of this play -- which premiered on Broadway back in 1971, starring Peter Falk, Lee Grant and Vincent Gardenia -- the Madison Avenue advertising executive suffers from insomnia, drinks too much, loses his job, has a nervous breakdown and needs a shrink. The romance has long left Mel’s marriage to Edna (Gina Hecht) behind, but what of the bond, the solidarity of their marital union? When his wife steps into the breach and becomes a secretary, Mel is only further diminished when the onetime housewife he supported turns into the family breadwinner.

Okay, it’s Simon, and most of this is played strictly for laughs, and these prisoners aren’t exactly storming the Bastille and Alexander is one of show biz’s best zinger slingers, and the award-winning Hecht, who’s also a sitcom veteran (Mork & Mindy, Seinfeld, HBO’s Hung), isn’t exactly a slouch in the one-liner department either. But during Mel’s extended period of unemployment he starts listening to talk radio and in one of the dramedy’s funniest and most harrowing scenes, this conned Edison delivers a rant on the “the conspiracy” aimed at eliminating the middle class.

Yes, the lines are droll and Alexander’s dead on delivery is high-larious, as is Edna’s reaction to her unraveling husband’s ravings. But on second thought, maybe Simon was onto something and had his pulse on the zeitgeist to come. The displacement of America’s white middle class (and middle aged) males by a confluence of forces – downsizing, outsourcing, feminism, gay lib, minority rights, the influx of immigrants, etc. – is now well-documented. Mel reveals what happened to the Mad Men after their heyday. This rage – which, as in Mel’s case is misguided, fuels and propels movements such as today’s Tea Party.

In Simon’s dramedy there’s much more comedy than drama, especially as the former finds lots of its laughs in the latter. Glenn Casale nimbly directs an expert ensemble cast that includes Ron Orbach as Mel’s more successful, but less beloved brother, Harry, and their trio of sisters – Carole Ita White as Jessie, Annie Korzen as Pearl, Deedee Rescher as Pauline. (The perils of Pauline?) Like Alexander and Hecht, their cast-mates skillfully pluck the humor out of the dialogue and situation with all the finesse of a humming bird extracting nectar from flowers. Simon provides lots of witty repartee here, ripostes ridiculing the American obsession with money and materialism. Orbach is especially touching as the wealthier, blustery brother who nevertheless envies the broken down Mel because he was the -- well, see it for yourself and find out what. 

The Prisoner of Second Avenue runs through May 15 at the El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood., CA, 91601. For info: 866/811-4111;Prisoner.