REVIEW: ‘The People in the Picture’ frames a Holocaust story

Donna Murphy stars in a sorrowful musical about a Warsaw Ghetto survivor and her offspring

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

BROADWAY REVIEW

The incomparable Donna Murphy usually can do no wrong in my book, but unfortunately she is lending her awesome gifts to the new musical “The People in the Picture,” which opened with a resounding thud at Studio 54 on Thursday.

The final production of Broadway’s 2010-2011 season is a mother-daughter-granddaughter musical tearjerker with a Holocaust background. Sorrowful in story and sadly weak in composition, it’s one mighty unhappy show.

Constantly shifting in time and place between 1930s-40s Warsaw and 1970s Manhattan, the musical centers upon elderly Raisel (Murphy) who tells stories about her younger self’s experiences with a Yiddish theater troupe in Poland to her rapt 10-year-old granddaughter Jenny. Raisel’s daughter, Red, frets about the old lady’s failing health yet also seems resentful of her, and they frequently quarrel.

The mystery behind the daughter’s bitterness is revealed during the second act. Populated by Raisel’s living memories, the episodic saga about her formerly happy days with the troupe culminates in the Nazi flames of the Warsaw Ghetto and its bleak aftermath. Set designer Riccardo Hernandez takes his cue from the title to situate the action within various picture frames that are shattered by later events.

The book and lyrics for this lugubrious saga is written by Iris Rainer Dart, best known as the novelist of the mother-daughter epic “Beaches.” The music is mostly composed by Mike Stoller, whose many hits with Jerry Leiber include “Jailhouse Rock” and “Stand By Me,” and who shares credit for this score with Artie Butler (“Here’s to Life”). So these are old pros, but not necessarily in the higher forms of musical theater, which becomes evident as their terribly sincere musical dismally labors away.

The cumbersome script involves a ton of clichés, which range from a nice Jewish doctor that Raisel eyes as a potential son-in-law in the present to the customary Yiddish theater ragtag antics and besieged Warsaw Ghetto incidents of her past. An electrifying score might rouse this embalmed material into a semblance of life, but that’s not the case here. The simplistic lyrics are obviously rhymed while the music, though often agreeably tuneful, insufficiently packs dramatic heft.

The Roundabout Theatre Company and director Leonard Foglia have assembled an effective 19-member cast led by Murphy, whose vibrant voice and chameleon acting abilities are put to the test as her Raisel leaps back and forth over the years from a doddering granny to a dynamic leading lady. Nicole Parker is stymied by her thankless role as the rankled Red, but Rachel Resheff is personable as young Jenny.

Familiar and always welcome faces among the theater troupe are the expert likes of Alexander Gemignani, Christopher Innvar, Chip Zien, Lewis J. Stadlen and the ever-endearing Joyce Van Patten, who valiantly make the best of their painful jokes and threadbare characters.

“The People in the Picture” continues through June 19 at Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., New York. Call (212) 719-1300 or visit www.roundabouttheatre.org.