STAGE REVIEW : Harelik’s ‘Immigrant’ Retains Genuine Power

There is an appeal in Mark Harelik’s “The Immigrant,” aptly subtitled “A Hamilton County Album,” that the production at the Westwood Playhouse only reinforces. It is the appeal of seeing a hard-working young immigrant eager and anxious to embrace America.

So what’s so new about that? Nothing. But what’s refreshing is the innocence of it all. Even a moderate cynic might call such innocence sentimentality. But “The Immigrant” is coin of the realm. It is written by a loving grandson as a valentine to his grandfather. The sentiment--and sentiment it is--is genuine.

It’s also an immigration story that takes a different path. It eludes tradition, because the young Russian Jew in question, Haskell Harelik, did not immigrate through the port of New York and follow the crowd straight to Hester Street. He immigrated through Galveston, Tex., and went straight to a little Texas hamlet called Hamilton, home to 1,200 Baptists.

That fact is what gives the story much of its seductiveness: The vision of this young stranger (played with contained puppy-dog scruffiness by Larry Belkin), peddling bananas in a wheelbarrow for a living, struggling to conquer a new language, and winning the hearts, friendship and help of Ima Perry (Barbara Bradshaw), and her husband, Milton (Jim Cordes), one of the town’s two bankers.

There is not much other story there--other, that is, than watching Haskell grow. He sends for his Russian-Jewish wife Leah (Judith Townsend) and, with Milton and Ima’s help, he prospers, becoming a father to three sons and the owner of Hamilton’s most successful general store. But the journey is full of enticing detail, personally stamped, that includes a whiff of regional prejudice and a serious falling out with Milton.

This production that opened Monday comes to us from the Off Broadway Theatre in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and has some unexpected twists. It eliminates a dream sequence from the 7-year-old play that had always felt extraneous, but it also removes a street encounter between Leah and Ima that deserves restoring, since director J. Barry Lewis has not found other ways to pass out some of the key information it contains.

The second act Sabbath dinner scene still retains its questionable chronology. It’s highly unlikely that these four friends would wait some 30 years before getting together for shabbes , the traditional Jewish Friday night supper--or that Leah and Ima, good friends that they are, would not have tasted each other’s cooking long before then. (This is a playwright’s minor problem, not a director’s, but a curious one for the author to neglect.)

The production has an unrealized moment in the potentially shattering scene that attempts to reconcile Haskell and Milton, and a generally slicker take on the play. But in other respects, the fresh eye Lewis and his actors bring to it produces unanticipated charms: A greater (and welcome) emphasis on Haskell’s Jewishness at the beginning; some fun with the pronunciation of the Harelik name (rhymes with garlic), and a nostalgic, melancholy balalaika score.

Belkin’s restrained eagerness as Haskell is consistent, keeping his bursts of emotion from ever becoming overly sentimental or merely overwrought. His is a bright, reined-in performance that stiffens in character as Haskell grows older and richer.

Cordes and Bradshaw are younger casting than usual for Milton and Ima, which hardly matters since the play spans some 40 years. They don’t age much, but put up a convincing front as the irreligious, dyed-in-the-wool Republican pragmatist and his deeply religious warm-hearted, impractical wife.

Cordes’ mildly reactionary performance as Milton, in fact, makes the character’s political rift with Haskell all the more believable, even as their attempted 11th-hour reconciliation is not. And Bradshaw exudes tenderness, though her Ima has plenty of spine.

If this were not a production in which the actors are such a close and superior match, one might be tempted to single out Townsend’s Leah. Townsend’s every moment on stage has the ring of truth. Her transitions from terrified immigrant to terrified pregnant wife, to secure and fulfilled older wife and mother are discharged with a fluid ease and unquestioned sincerity.

Jay Tompkins’ simple set and lighting fill out the smallish Westwood stage without cluttering it, and since the play is helpfully augmented by projections of pages from the Harelik family album, simplicity is key--something director Lewis and his company have smartly figured out and are wise enough to keep in mind.

* “The Immigrant, A Hamilton County Album,” Westwood Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, Saturdays, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends April 5. $22.50-$30; (310) 208-5454, (213) 480-3232). Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes.

‘The Immigrant, A Hamilton County Album’

Barbara Bradshaw: Ima Perry

Larry Belkin: Haskell Harelik

Jim Cordes: Milton Perry

Judith Townsend: Leah Harelik

A Brian C. Smith, Eric Krebs presentation. Director J. Barry Lewis. Playwright Mark Harelik. Sets and lights Jay Tompkins. Costumes Andre and Delphine. Production design Jeffrey Karoff. Sound Dru P. Allard. Production stage manager A. Elizabeth Davis.

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