Regent mounts a solid production of 'Ballyhoo'

By Melanie Barker

KEMPSVILLE

It's December 1939. Hitler has just invaded Poland, and Atlanta is hosting the world premiere of "Gone With the Wind." Christmas is coming, and so is "Ballyhoo," a celebration and debutante ball for prominent, wealthy German Jews living in the heart of Dixie.

These events surround "The Last Night of Ballyhoo," a semi-autobiographical play by Alfred Uhry, who also wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Driving Miss Daisy." Now playing at Regent University's Studio Theatre, "The Last Night of Ballyhoo" won the 1997 Tony award for best play.

Born in Atlanta in the 1930s, Uhry draws material from his recollections of growing up Jewish in the South. He uses light comedy to entertain and also to expose universal themes - primarily prejudice and acceptance within and outside of one's own ethnic identity.

As "Ballyhoo" opens, Lala Levy (Tabitha Ray) is decorating the Christmas tree in the Atlanta home of her extended Jewish family. The Freitags are so assimilated into Southern culture that a Christmas tree is - as Lala's mother, Boo (Hannah Hughes), says - just like a Halloween pumpkin or a Valentine heart.

The dark-haired Lala bemoans her ethnic features and wails to her mother, "We're Jewish - we have no place in society," while her blond cousin, Sunny (Ashley Dakin), dismisses Ballyhoo as "a bunch of dressed-up Jews dancing around kissing their elbows and wishing they were Episcopalians."

But when head-of-the-house Adolph Freitag (Chad Gilliland) brings home his new employee, New Yorker Joe Farkas (Andy Geffken), conflicts arise over Joe's heritage as "the wrong kind" of Jew - from "east of the Elba."

These conflicts are presented with humor, ranging from subtle looks to one-liners to outrageous farce. Director Mark Paladini keeps it all balanced, allowing his cast to impart the humor in different degrees.

At the showy end of the spectrum is Ray's energetic, crowd-pleasing performance as the emotionally overwrought, Scarlett O'Hara-obsessed Lala. Hughes and Gilliland keep the show grounded, and Geffken delivers a solid, endearing performance as the likeable Joe.

The sound system is used to great effect: Strains of "Tara's Theme" from "Gone With the Wind" waft in and out; train station noises are audible but not too loud; and old radio comedy bits are played during blackouts and scene changes.

Although impressive, the set is too large for the studio theater space. The massive, two-story home dwarfs the actors and leaves hardly any room for scenes that are played away from the home. In the train station scenes, some of the audience is forced to look at the actors' backs.

The home's interior is also puzzling. Although pale orange paint and terra-cotta tile floors might have been in some Atlanta homes in 1939, the look is more commonly associated with the Spanish-style mansions of Southern California.

However, the high staircase works. Some of the most indelible images from "Gone With the Wind" happen on staircases, and it's great fun to watch this cast tear up and down the steps as they all learn to get along for "The Last Night of Ballyhoo."

Melanie Barker, melanbark@cox.net