‘Morning Star’ Rises With Glowing Cast

Sylvia Regan Ellstein’s “Morning Star” opened on Broadway in 1940, with that icon of the Yiddish theater, Molly Picon, as Becky Felderman, the matriarch of a volatile Jewish family on New York’s Lower East Side at the beginning of this century. The play is as solid a piece of theater today as it was then.

It’s a chronicle play, something you don’t see much anymore, logging the Feldermans’ history from 1910 to 1918 and allowing the playwright to comment on World War I, the Triangle sweatshop fire and the encroaching power of unionism and its effect on workers and management.

Director Phyllis B. Gitlin’s loving and insightful revival at the Long Beach Studio Theatre places these historical events in their proper dramatic stance but wisely concentrates on the inner tensions in the Felderman family. Families haven’t changed that much with the times, this staging points out, as they strive to survive as a unit.

Although “Morning Star” is faintly reminiscent of 1930s dramas, such as Odets’ “Awake and Sing,” and hints at the charms of Gertrude Berg’s “The Goldbergs,” it has a personality all its own. Part of that is due to Gitlin’s concept, and part to the overall insightful performances of the cast.

The drama pivots naturally around widow Becky, who has struggled to make a life for her four children in the New World. DeeBye Meyers plays Becky with resolute authority masked by an innate charm and a free-flowing sense of humor. That humor is especially necessary in staving off the marriage proposals of her boarder, Aaron Greenspan. That her resolve will eventually break down is only subliminally indicated by Ciro Barbaro’s ebullience as Aaron, whose halfhearted blusters are belied by his own immeasurable charm. These two belong together, creating the magnetism that informs most of the other action.

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The three daughters’ romances and marriages are at the core of the conflicts in the play. Michelle Bruce, as daughter Fanny, who dreams of being a singer, plays the role with honesty and integrity, carefully balancing Fanny’s own sense of humor with an artless self-concern and a winning innocence. The youngest daughter, 16-year-old Esther, is also an innocent, which gives her engagement to burgeoning teacher Harry (Dean Edward) a sort of valentine quality.

The most difficult of the three roles is that of Sadie, the oldest, who brought Harry into the house and has definite plans for him. Jennifer Severance plays her impeccably, allowing the character’s anger and growing need for power to filter through all her scenes without diminishing the Felderman trademark for survival.

Edward is excellent as Harry, charming and boyish at the start, with a steady creeping of depression in the years after Esther’s death, and bitter anger after his foolish marriage to Sadie. One of the more insightful performances--a portrait of restraint and much detail--is that of Larry Freilick as Fanny’s husband, Irving, who is vulnerable to the charms of women outside his marriage.

Detail and color can also be found in the performances of John Szura as Aaron’s socialist friend, Brownstein; Manny Siegall as Harry’s patient father; and in the warmth of Kathy Yolanda Bankston’s maid Pansy.

Touching moments are provided with absolute truthfulness by Jonathan Ross as Becky’s youngest child, Hymie, and Zachary Einstein as Fanny and Irving’s son, also named Hymie, both reading, years apart, their simple bar mitzvah speeches ending “I am a man.” A buoyant performance by Nick Taricco, as Hymie Felderman as a young man about to enlist during World War I, points up the role fate plays in all our lives.

* “Morning Star,” Long Beach Studio Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sunday matinees, Feb. 8 and March 1, 2 p.m. Ends March 7. $10-$15. (562) 494-1616. Running time: 3 hours.

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“Morning Star”

DeeBye Meyers: Becky Felderman

Michelle Bruce: Fanny

Ciro Barbaro: Aaron Greenspan

Sarah van der Pol: Esther

Jonathan Ross: Hymie (as a boy)

Dean Edward: Harry Engel

Jennifer Severance: Sadie

Larry Freilick: Irving Tashman

John Szura: Benjamin Brownstein

Manny Siegall: Myron Engel

Nick Taricco: Hymie (as a young man)

Kathy Yolanda Bankston: Pansy

Zachary Einstein: Hymie Tashman

A Long Beach Playhouse revival of Sylvia Regan Ellstein’s drama. Directed by Phyllis B. Gitlin. Scenic/lighting design: Sean Small. Sound design: Sampson Williams. Costume design: Donna Fritsche. Millinery design: Greg Fritsche. Wig design: David Larson. Stage manager: Barbara Ashby.