Sandra Birch, Julia Glander and Connie Cowper in The Cemetery Club at Tipping Point Theatre. Photo: Ivan Menchell
By Jenn McKee, EncoreMichigan.com
To sell a play about friendship, the actors ultimately have to if youll forgive the cliche have the right chemistry. Their energy has to build on each other so that not only do we believe in their deep and abiding bond, but we also enjoy our time with them, as though we are a virtual, silent, additional friend.
Tipping Point Theatres production of Ivan Menchells The Cemetery Club features a leading ensemble that has that chemistry down; what they lack is a script that feels like more than an occasionally funny, warmed-over sitcom.
Set in the Queens apartment of a Jewish widow named Ida (Julia Glander), Cemetery tells the story of a three-way friendship at a crossroads. Doris (Connie Cowper) is a devoted widow with no interest in finding new love; Lucille (Sandra Birch) is a loud, bargain-loving, man-hungry widow who wants to stop looking back to the past; and Ida is ready, after losing her husband two years before, to venture back into dating.
When Ida runs into Sam (Thomas D. Mahard), a local butcher, they pursue a relationship, but the way is anything but smooth.
Beth Torrey directs the show with an eye toward really anchoring it in the womens friendship and the complications that arise when that triumvirate is threatened. An extended scene when the women are drunk, after coming home from a wedding, is a highlight.
And spending time with these women is often fun, thanks to the actresses unbridled performances. But the play itself feels bloated at two hours; the plays stakes just dont feel that high. And too much along the way rings predictable and familiar: The women rib each other about lying about their age, and how, if you dont like being alone, get a dog, not a man; Lucille repeatedly makes the others guess how much she paid for various clothing items; and sometimes, the schmaltz runs painfully thick (one secret is screamed mid-argument, followed by violent weeping, for instance).
Lucille, being the extroverted vixen of the trio, gets the lions share of funny lines and moments, and Birch cashes them in with deliciously playful zest. Cowper, meanwhile, effectively straddles the line between a sanctimonious goody-two-shoes and a well-intentioned, good-hearted angel on Idas shoulder. Brenda Lane brings a much-appreciated bolt of new energy to the production when her character makes a surprise arrival (I wont say more at the risk of ruining the surprise); and Mahards Sam is a man we want to like, but come to doubt.
Ultimately, though, the show hinges on Ida and her personal journey, and Glanders performance is a knockout. From tentatively tiptoeing toward courtship, to drunkenly commiserating with girlfriends and then being struck speechless in the face of tragedy Glander makes you root, and ache, for Ida.
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Chemistry Sizzles At Tipping Point Show