Play Review: 'The Last Night Of Ballyhoo': Play Entertains And Makes You Think
By ROISHINA C. HENDERSON - For the Commonwealth
It’s a love story.
Well, sort of.
Greenwood Little Theatre’s “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” production entertains and enlightens but also makes you ponder on your own religious and social beliefs.
But then there is love — a mother’s love and a romance. There’s also a dark display of issues within a family and lessons in acceptance and being in direct hit of rejection and racism in the Jewish community.
For the play written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry, seasoned director Forrest Hodge fashioned a well-jelled, seven- member cast who all shine in their characters and give memorable theatrical performances.
“I’ve been extremely blessed with the cast and crew,” Hodge said. “They have gone above and beyond with this production. The cast has brought characters to life from the pages of the script. The nuances of character development have exceeded my expectations. I’m eternally grateful for Kirk Auto Group sponsoring this production and the hardworking crew for bringing my vision to life.”
Though set in December 1939 in Atlanta, this drama/comedy is relevant to today’s social-economic and racial climate, as it follows the Freitags — a non-traditional Jewish family whose mind is on Ballyhoo, their social club’s upcoming cotillion.
Adolph (D. Scott Wright), a patriarch and businessman, is in a house full of women: his sister Boo (Kat Coxwell), sister-in-law Reba (Patricia Kilburn) and two young adult nieces Lala (Nichole Henry Buchanan) and Sunny (Madison Gray Haley). Wright pulls off a caring, protective and witty nature.
Love and stability are what Boo wants for her daughter Lala, a college dropout who jumps from one creative idea to the next. Pushy in personality, Boo desperately tries to secure Lala a date to Ballyhoo and a potential husband. She’s fixated on seeing her with Peachy Weil (Charles Freeman), a sarcastic, uncouth guy from Lake Charles, Louisiana — but then second-guesses if he’s the right fit for her.
Reba is the polar opposite of Boo; she’s easygoing and sweet-natured when it comes to her daughter Sunny, who is beautiful and smart, shares her mother’s same temperament and is studying at Wellesley College.
The drama magic commences when Adolph invites his new employee Joe Farkas (JT Hurst), a New Yorker with a heavy Brooklyn accent, to dinner one night. Lala appears smitten and ready to dig her feminine wiles into Joe. But Joe isn’t receptive, as he moves about the room to create some distance. This is a distance that Boo wanted to see, because she wasn’t welcoming of Joe at all.
After dinner, Boo uses an anti-Semitic slur and tells Adolph that Joe “has no manners.”
But Adolph pays Boo no mind when he sends Joe to look after Sunny when she’s on a train ride in Baltimore. There are obvious sparks between the two on the train ride, and you can’t help but fall in love with their chemistry. Joe asks Sunny to be his date to Ballyhoo.
Though not married, Adolph is familiar with love himself and shares an endearing moment with Sunny.
“Were you ever in love?” Sunny asked. “What was her name?”
Adolph revealed that he didn’t know her name and that she was someone who used to ride the same streetcar as he did every morning.
“She had beautiful hands, and she had a whole lot of brown hair wound around on top of her head,” he shared. But then eventually he never saw her again and didn’t know what happened to her.
Maybe unintentionally in Adolph making a love connection between Joe and Sonny, the attractive pair do spend some time together to learn about each other. Sunny dishes Joe a story of her experience with prejudices in their Jewish community as a child. “Well, see? That’s all we wanted… to be like everybody else,” Sunny said of wanting to blend in the world and be treated fairly.
Throughout the Ballyhoo story, Joe does challenge Sunny on some of her thoughts and practices in Judaism, such as observing that the Freitags have a Christmas tree.
After heavy talks and wanting to leave on a beautiful note that particular night, it’s clear that Joe is fond of Sunny.
“Do me a favor?” he asked, heading to the door.
“What,” Sunny inquires.
“Say my name?” he implored. She lovingly obliged.
“I love it!” His heart palpitates.
When Joe leaves, it opens the door for Sunny and Lala to have a much-needed discussion that uncovered some hidden hurt Lala had in feeling inferior to Sunny because of how she felt Sunny doesn’t look Jewish.
“Oh come on, Sunny,” Lala seemingly jealous. “You’ve always gotten all the attention. Even from God! He didn’t give you one Jewish feature and look at me!”
Throwing another jab, Lala finishes with letting Sunny know that she’ll be waltzing into Ballyhoo with a Jewish pedigree that’s more accepting than Joe.
Both Sunny and Lala are indeed escorted in Ballyhoo with Joe and Peachy. But then sadly, Joe, who is Russian Jewish, learns from Peachy that the social club is restricted to German-Jewish people and abruptly flees the dance without Sunny. He later goes to the Freitags’ home to talk to Sunny. They have a heated exchange about him abandoning her at the dance and ‘Jew-hater talk.’ They break up, and he leaves the house.
However, the heart wants what the heart wants, as Joe doesn’t stay separated from Sunny too long. He meets her on another train ride in Delaware.
Sunny then wonders what will lie ahead.
“So think of something really good, and we’ll just make it happen,” Joe assures her.
The final scene will leave audiences wondering if what just happened is a future reality or a dream sequence.
COMING UP
What: Greenwood Little Theatre will present “The Last Night of Ballyhoo.”
When: 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Where: Davis Auditorium, 400 Cotton St.
Details: Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and can be purchased at the door or online at www.greenwoodlittletheatre.com. Interested persons can become GLT members for the 2024-2025 season and receive free admission to “Ballyhoo.”