Customer Reviews

Lost in Yonkers (Drama, Plume)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Set in Yonkers, New York, in 1942, this Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play captures the tumult of the period by focusing on the lives of three generations of one family, all of whom are dealing with personal issues in addition to the traumas of World War II. Arty, age 13, and Jay, age 15, whose mother has just died of cancer, must move in with their stern immigrant grandmother and sweet, but ditzy, Aunt Bella while their father works for ten months in the South.

Grandma Kurnitz, who (ironically) runs a sweet shop, is embittered by her life: only four of her six children survive, and none of them are close to her. She does not know her grandchildren and does not want them living with her and messing up her life and her house, facts she makes plain to the boys from the outset. Ruling with an iron hand, she terrifies everyone around her.

The coming-of-age of Arty and Jay, as they learn to deal with Grandma and eventually learn to respect her, is not without its complications as the rest of the family involves the boys in their own issues. Aunt Bella, who is mentally and emotionally a child, falls in love. Aunt Gert, who can speak only as she exhales, and wheezes as she inhales (the result of a childhood trauma involving Grandma), checks in periodically on Grandma and Bella but tries to avoid Grandma. Uncle Louie is a bagman for the mob, and he is on the run. Their father, who maintains a dramatic presence through his letters, cannot come home until he has earned enough to pay off the loan sharks to whom he is indebted for the money for his wife's cancer treatments.

Moments of great drama, wit, and poignancy play out within the apartment, with all the action revolving around Grandma. Gradually, the reader/viewer develops empathy for this victim of life's tragedies, a woman who has made her own life more difficult than it needed to be and permanently damaged the lives of her family. The liveliness and optimism of Arty and Jay, as they try to survive Grandma and their life with her, cast the damaged lives of their elders into sharp relief, adding to the dramatic intensity of the climax. Firmly grounded in time, place, and atmosphere, this play, like many other Simon plays, provides a close-up look at a struggling family in New York and reveals its action from the point of view of a child who comes of age during the action. A beautiful evocation of man's universal need for love and respect. n Mary Whipple

The Good Doctor
Rewrites: A Memoir

I was pleasantly surprised by Lost in Yonkers. The story touched my heart without being pretentious. Neil Simon is one of the best modern playwrights who has the heart of Miller and the inventiveness of Mamet.

An organization called L.A. Theatre Works brings together top
actors to perform classic and contemporary plays, recorded in
state-of-the art sound quality . . . I've heard several of these in
the past and have never been disappointed . . . so when I had the
chance to listen to Neil Simon's LOST IN YONKERS, I jumped at the
opportunity.

What a marvelous time I had!

The play is set in Yonkers in 1942 . . . two boys, aged 13 and 16, have
to spend one year with their demanding grandmother after their
mother dies and their father needs to find work elsewhere . . . they
encounter all sorts of memorable characters, and I really felt
that I got to know each and every one of them.

The performances were all excellent, though in particular, I
was touched by the work of Roxanne Hart as Aunt Bella.

I now want to see the movie version of this play and, also,
catch more productions from L.A. Theatre Works.

One of Neil Simon's classic dramas, Lost In Yonkers is set in 1942 Yonkers, New York and centers on Jay and Arty, two boys (ages 13 and 16) who must spend one year with their rather austere and quite demanding grandmother while war rages in Europe. Here is a family of memorable and eccentric characters that can be identified within most families and assortments of kinfolk. The Los Angles Theatre Works cast under the direction of John Rubinstein does full justice in this radio play adaptation of Neil Simon's Pultizer Prize and Tony Award-winning play. This superbly recorded audiobook edition of Lost In Yonkers is very highly recommended to the legions of Neil Simon enthusiasts and fans.

First and foremost, Neil Simon is a brilliant playright, and Lost in Yonkers is another feather in his cap. Set in Yonkers, New York in 1942 during the second world war, two children-Jay and Artie-must stay for one year (while a debt is being cleared by their father) with their cold-hearted, inflexible, emasculating and miserly Grandmother Kurnitz, a hardened survivor and also a woman whose own inner emotional "icing up" (because of her own uncommunicated tragedy) turned her own kids into a petty thug (Louie), a childlike simpleton (Bella), a castrated doormat (Eddie) and a stuttering fool whom many privately mock (Aunt Gert). And under the intense conditions that this one woman evokes, Jay and Artie must struggle to live or rather survive, for a house without love or any caliber of human warmth whatsoever can quickly change these two boys from innocence and humor to the very spitting image of their deeply flawed aunts and uncle, and they themselves realize this; they must be steely and unfeeling, as their grandmother would love to have happen, for anything opposite that would be a sign of weakness and failure. And that is what makes Lost in Yonkers sad, disturbing and frightening, because those very elements are the ingredients for a very dysfunctional adulthood, and that is sometimes the worst weapon of all--the lacking of human love and warmth. But with the strict, life-sucking obedience that the kids must adhere to in order for there to be some semblance of peace and cohesion, one would think that there would be no possible glimmer of hope at all. Yet, the hope comes in the form of Jay and Artie's childlike aunt, Bella, whose simplicity will simply not allow her to be an unfeeling android who goes through the motions of life. She yearns for love and demands it, if not from her very mother than from her nephews and those whom she tries to date and form relationships with: "...But I'll never stop wanting what I don't have...It's too late to go back for me...Maybe I'm still a child but now there's just enough woman in me to make me miserable. We have to learn to deal with that somehow, you and me...And it can never be the same anymore...(She gets up) I'll put my things away...I think we've both said enough for today...don't you?" (P. 114). Bella's audacity to finally stand up and against her mother's cold stranglehold shifts the whole play and all its characters-though Gert and Louie seem so far gone and too steeped in their own problems to be redeemed-to a higher realm of betterment and potential, specificially for Jay and Arty, who have quitely borne their misery with fear and sharp wit and one-liners, while Bella and Grandmother Kurnitz have also somehow emotionally improved, if only minutely. But the next generation has been spared the wrath. Lost in Yonkers is about fear in the family, the sufferings that family's can inflict upon one another and ultimately redemption through that suffering. Lost in Yonkers is a true American play.

I am not a huge fan of Neil Simon. In general, I find his work to be a bit obvious and overblown, however "Lost in Yonkers" was a major exception. This is a funny, sad, smart, interesting and ultimately satisfying play.

The characters are very nuanced and the dialogue is consistently sharp. I would love to see a production of this play as I'm sure it's even better live on the stage.

As Advertised, this is the deal! FAST Delivery - "Does exactly what it says on the tin!" Thanks!

I have never read a play so easily as this one. Great story, characters, and great writing.

"I don't think I could write a serious play that didn't have its share of humor," playwright Neil Simon has said. "Nor would I want to write a comedy that didn't reveal its dark side. If it didn't have something to say about truth and revelations, audiences would walk out with that bland sense of nothing known as cute. There is no art in cute." Simon's Putlitzer Prize winning "Lost In Yonkers" is not cute. Set in 1942 during World War II, it is not a nostalgic valentine to the era.
Labeling it a "coming of age" story is much too simplistic. It is much more a story about the consequences of surviving at all costs. The play is very funny at times, but Simon is more concerned with bittersweet realities and pathos than comical punchlines here.
The outstanding L.A. Theatre Works Audio Production (on two CDS) , directed by Joel Rubenstein with an excellent cast, brings Simon's very flawed and human characters to life.
Due to a combination of economic and family crisis, brothers Arty and Jay (Kenneth Schmidt and Ben Diskin) are forced to live with their formidable, tough as nails Grandma (Barbara Bain) and child-like Aunt Bella (Roxanne Hart) while their father Eddie (Arye Gross) sells scrap iron across the country. This arrangement is far from ideal, as Grandma's "tough-to-no-love" approach has left her family with serious issues. Eddie is too sensitive and "weak", Bella (endearingly portrayed by Roxanne Hart) has a cognitive disability, and Aunt Gert (Gia Carides) is so terrified she can't speak properly.
By the time colorful Uncle Louie (Dan Castellaneta) arrives, Jay is so frustrated he wants to join Louie on the road. Louie is hiding from the Mob and, therefore, not a good role model. "A good week for you is a bad week for somebody else," Grandma tells him. Louie, who has learned her "survive at all costs" techniques too well, replies, "Whatever I've done in this life, you've been my partner."
The play reaches its emotional apex when Bella, more smart and self-aware than her family thinks, asserts herself by expressing her life aspirations. Unlike Grandma, Bella wants to be "soft and warm" and truly loved before she dies. Simon's humanity consistently shines through the complex emotional situations. He understands that humans are imperfect; and he respects his very human characters for doing the best they can with the hand that life has dealt them.
Highly recommended!

My purpose for purchasing this play was because we always purchase plays when our family actor will be auditioning.

Amazon has great prices. But this play is a really good
family emotional drama.
In Neil Simon's way, the humor is sprinkled in.
Don't just read it... go see it!!