Miracle on South Division Street

Melanie and I saw an interesting play last night at St. Luke’s Theatre on West 46th Street, “Miracle on South Division Street.” It was a comedy drama and tickets were $28.50/ea via TDF.

http://stlukestheatre.com/

St. Luke’s is an Off-Broadway house I’d never been to before and is on the small size, bigger than a 99-seat black box but not by much at 174 seats.

“Miracle on South Division Street” is a four-character play with a mother and her three adult children. TOO adult, in fact; the actress playing the oldest daughter didn’t look much younger than the actress playing the mother.

It’s an Equity show and I wondered why they didn’t cast more age-appropriate actors out of that professional pool. I figure the pay probably wasn’t great so maybe they couldn’t attract more talented and appropriate actors.

I liked the woman who played the middle child Beverly Nowak (Liz Zazzi), she had great presence and timing and a well-developed character. The eldest daughter Ruth Nowak (Andrea Maulella), though too old, did a good job playing someone younger, and her character takes some nice turns. The mother Clara Nowalk (Peggy Cosgrave) was a little flat and one-note, and she should have aged herself with makeup for the part. The actor playing the youngest, the son Jimmy Nowalk (Rusty Ross), started off weak and amateurish and I kept wondering how he got cast. When I see weaker actors in otherwise professional plays I think maybe there’s hope for me (I don’t set my own bar very high ☺ ). He get’s better through the show though, almost as if the actor has to warm into the character.

The play is flawed but good. The end gets farcical which isn’t a bad thing, but you have to suspend your disbelief more than usual to go with it. But there are some great laugh-out-loud moments. It also has a nice heart and some real emotion. A clever show that starts off a little slowly. Good, not great, and entertaining; I’m glad we saw it.


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