‘Ballyhoo’ a serious comedy about ethnic identity

“The Last Night of Ballyhoo” meets the textbook definition of a workmanlike play, so much so that you can almost hear the sawing, planing and hammering that went into it as Alfred Uhry painstakingly crafted a bittersweet portrait of a lost time and place.

Uhry, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Driving Miss Daisy,” allows us entry into the world of German-Jewish gentry in the American South in this piece, which opened on Broadway in 1997. The 1939 world premiere of “Gone With the Wind” in downtown Atlanta and Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland provide the historical background for the dramatic action.

Over the course of the play, which alternately rivets our attention with meaty dramatic questions and grates with the easy button-pushing of a sitcom, Uhry takes a look at issues of cultural identity and assimilation.

The Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre production, directed by Karen Paisley, exploits the work’s strengths without entirely sidestepping Uhry’s sometimes clumsy attempts to blend comedy and social commentary. But most of her casting choices are smart. The result is a production with performances that range from adequate to inspired and that ultimately delivers a gentle emotional payoff.

The action unfolds in the Atlanta home occupied by Adolph Freitag (Scott Cox), a successful businessman; his widowed sister-in-law Reba Freitag (Danelle Drury); his sister, also a widow, Boo Levy (Licia Watson); and her immature daughter Lala (Brie Henderson).

The play opens as Christmas approaches. The Freitags, like many secular Jews, have an imposing Christmas tree in the living room. Reba’s daughter, the brainy Sunny Freitag (Grey Erin Renee), is on her way home from college. And Adolph invites a new employee home for dinner: young Joe Farkas (Kyle Dyck), who grew up in Brooklyn and is mystified by the assimilated ways of the Freitag clan.

Much of the dramatic tension, if you can call it that, revolves around whether Lala will be asked to Ballyhoo, a lavish cotillion by which upper middle-class Jewish families respond to the strictures of gentile society with their own brand of class-consciousness. The chief candidate to escort Lala is Peachy Weil (Michael Ott), a supercilious loudmouth who hails from an important Jewish family in Louisiana.

A parallel storyline focuses on the budding romance between Joe and Sunny.

The production is buoyed by two superior performances. As Adolph, Cox brings a relaxed gravitas to the stage, playing the character with an amused detachment that occasionally gives way to moments of frustration and anger.

Dyck, who has emerged as one of the most interesting young actors in town, brings a clarity and precision to Joe, striking an impressive balance between the character’s impatience with the Freitags’ apparent ignorance of Jewish culture and his attraction to Sunny.

Indeed, the scenes between Joe and Sunny, played with straightforward simplicity by Renee, are the most effective in the show, whether they are falling in love on their best behavior, discussing what it means to be Jewish or venting frustration with each other or the world around them.

Watson, a formidable actress, is a bit confined by Boo, whose penchant for histrionics makes her more cartoonish than she needs to be. Henderson radiates charm and charisma as Lala, although the character’s concerns are so superficial that viewers may wonder why Uhry decided to give her so much stage time.

Drury, although clearly too young to play Reba, gives us a nicely understated performance. And Ott stops just short of going over the top as the memorably comic Peachy.

The play concludes poignantly, as the family (including Joe and Peachy, each now engaged) comes together to observe the Jewish Sabbath. The world is headed to war, and Joe and Peachy will almost certainly serve in the conflict. In short, the family will be tested. But their faith, Uhry suggests, will see them through.

Paisley designed the sprawling set, spreading the action horizontally across what seems like a vast space that is illuminated by Matt McAndrews’ nuanced lighting design. Costumer Eric Sword serves the play while allowing herself a few creative, comic flourishes — no less so than in Lala’s layered ballgown, which aesthetically seems lifted directly from “Gone With the Wind.”

This story was originally published April 19, 2015 at 1:54 PM with the headline "‘Ballyhoo’ a serious comedy about ethnic identity."