Over the River and Through the Woods - Cast and Production Staff

Reviews for Over the River and Through the Woods

Chicago Sun Times
Centerstage Chicago
Chicagocritic.com

'Over the River' Sings of Ties that Bind

October 16, 2003

BY HEDY WEISS THEATER CRITIC - Maybe it's the classic dinner scene -- the one in which Nick Cristano, an overprotected, 29-year-old Italian-American boy about to leave his Hoboken, N.J., roots behind to take a job in Seattle, is blatantly set up with a very pretty girl deemed marriage material by his two sets of grandparents. (They have ulterior motives, of course.)

Or maybe it's the way Nick tries to explain to those two aging, working-class, salt-of-the-earth couples just exactly what he does for a living, even if the whole notion of marketing and account management is entirely outside their world view.

Or maybe it's the scene in which Nick and his grandparents sit down to a game of Trivial Pursuit that is so insanely funny -- on the mark and off the radar -- that you wish it would never end.

Or maybe it's just the notion of 15 pounds of homemade lasagna making its way through the mail.

Whatever it is that sends you into a state of crazy laughter (and ultimately brings tears to your eyes, too), rest assured that something in Joe DiPietro's finely honed sitcom-cum-memoir, "Over the River and Through the Woods," is bound to get you and put you over the top. Even those who believe they are immune to the tried-and-true stories of generational shifts, immigrant history and the ties that bind the family may find their defenses shattered here.

The show, which just opened at the Mercury Theatre, arrives in Chicago in the wake of its original successful run at Theater at the Center in Munster, Ind. -- an outfit that has become a fine playground for many top-notch Chicago actors and directors and discerning audiences alike. Directed with metronome-sharp timing by the center's artistic director, Michael Weber, it has been brilliantly cast. And even if DiPietro has appended a few too many endings, and can't quite control a tendency to spell things out when no explanation is needed, his heartrending and comically true play about the perils and glories of too much family and too much love is a winner.

As Nick, the exceptionally engaging Matt Orlando strikes just the right balance between frustration and adoration. As his ideally mismatched paternal grandparents, Nunzio and Emma Cristano, Vince Viverito gives a gem of a performance (his memory-chain monologue is, alone, worth the price of admission), and he is ideally matched by the rail-thin, copper-haired Glory Kissel, a Nashville, Tenn., transplant who is a superb comic actress. Playing grandmother Aida Gianelli, who lives to cook and see that you eat, is Renee Matthews, a relentless ball of energy who clearly will outlive them all, including her husband, Frank, played by Bernie Landis with the larger-than-life embrace that is his trademark. As Caitlin O'Hare, the wonderfully balanced neurotic and steadfast vegetarian who comes to dinner, Shana Goodsell is an easy charmer.

Throughout "Over the River," Nick complains of the suffocating heat in the Gianelli home, where windows are kept shut and air-conditioning isn't turned on until July Fourth. Of course it is the heat that comes from too much fear, too much guilt and an almost overwhelming abundance of love -- just the kind of heat needed to fire up a comedy that burns on high.

Centerstage Chicago (http://centerstagechicago.com)

by Gordon West

…To Grandmother's Hoboken, New Jersey living room we go. An amalgamation of every fantasy and realistic matriarchal home with which we have ever come in contact or conceived on some plane of fantasy is revealed. The stage is intricately set as a tribute to lace doilies, fine china-stocked cabinets, wooden heirloom furniture and vintage family photographs circa 1940. Despite a probable stuffiness, the room is welcoming in its years of well-groomed yet tattered wear.

With the holiday season looming in the near future, Joe DiPietro's Over the River and Through the Woods is mental preparation for the charming stifle annual gatherings of family en masse promise.

DiPietro, with I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change also to his credit, offers the tale of Nick Cristano (Matt Orlando) struggling with the inevitable separation from his four doting East Coast grandparents that a Seattle based promotion will entail. Orlando's Nick embodies the tongue biting frustration too commonly felt when one is inundated with interfering relatives.

Grandparents Aida & Frank (Renee Matthews, Bernie Landis), Emma & Nunzio (Glory Kissel, Vince Viverito) each comically relieve along the way. Cooing, awing and guffawing are conjured with Aida's overzealous cooking and in turn mailing of 16 lb lasagnas to family members, Frank's inability to relinquish car keys or the rights to his ratty arm chair, Emma's need to correct her grandson's bachelorhood with fervent Catholic prayer and Nuinzio's amusingly nonintellectual way of answering game board questions. The four cohorts then secretly set up Nick with a bubbly Irish blonde, Caitlin (Shana Goodsell) proving to be delightfully disastrous. Over a gut busting Sunday dinner they, quite typically, reveal embarrassing tales of Nick's youth and blatantly propose that Caitlin consider marriage with their grandson.

Unconventional interceptions of side narratives provide sporadic insights into the thoughts of each character and reveal some reasoning behind the quirky idiosyncratic mannerisms of Senior Citizens. The grandparents and, later, an enlightened Nick, reveal this force-feeding of potential brides and their despair at his likely departure as an endearingly frantic effort of elders to continue the family line, to procure a better life for their progeny.

Over the River is a hearty marinara à la nonna, with meaty dialogue, juicy humor and an aftertaste that will leave you scraping your plate for more. Rightfully produced in the Mercury theatre with all of its turn of last century charm (the seats are actual relics of a Boston Vaudevillian theatre), there is an air of a locale that the 4 elderly characters may have seen in their days of youth.

Chicagocritic.com

Over the River And Through The Woods is a story about the influence of grandparents on the extended family. We meet all four of Nick's grandparents whose love and support give Nick a strong sense of family. Nick appreciates their love but naturally resists their attempts at control. The play is about change, individual choice versus the will of the family, and the invisible ties that bind us to those we love. Nick must tell them he is moving from New Jersey to Seattle.

Joe DiPietro , called “The Italian Neil Simon,” has written a touching comedy full of warm real characters several steps above TV sitcom people. Having had all four of my grandparents alive until I was 17, I can relate to how quirky, cute and nurturing grandparents can be. Down the block, lived the Ponteralli's whose grandparents could have been cast in this show. The only characteristic left out in the Mercury Theatre's grandparents was the Italian accent. I see the Ponteralli's in this show.

DiPietro's tightly written script had just the right amount of anecdotes and cute bits to get us to love the grandparents (I wanted to move in right away). Each grandparent was peculiar yet realistic. In the hands of four wonderful veteran actors, Over The River And Through The Woods' grandparents shine in a hilarious and moving look at family and the inevitability of change. DiPietro developed each character with a personal signature.

Bernie Landis , as Frank, keeps hitting things when he drive his car and always wants ‘his' chair. Landis gave Frank strength and consistency. The always-delightful Renee Matthews , as Aida, shows her nurturing side by always preparing food for Nick (who can enter an Italian-American household without being offered food?). Matthews gave Aida a peppy presence while throwing in some guilt and doubt in Nick's sandwich. Renee Matthew's demonstrated her acting range in the powerful ending scene when she showed Aida several years later as an old lady who moves slower yet still has the love of family and the love of life. Matthews was everyone's sweet grandmother in that scene.

Glory Kissel had Emma, the grandmother who constantly presents Nick with Mass Cards. She has the devoted wife character down pat. Vince Viverito was terrific as Nunzio, the personificatio n of the Italian grandparent. Viverito steals the show with hilarious vignettes. The scene where Nick gets the grandparents to play CLUE was worth the trip to the Mercury Theatre. . We fall off our chairs laughing at the convoluted manner, Nunzio and Frank answer Nick's questions. The ensemble's brilliant comedic timing produced enough humor to win our hearts. Matt Orlando as Nick was outstanding with enough heart and enough vulnerability to get us to care about him. Orlando is a fine actor.

DiPietro's storyline is realistic in its development and resolution. In the real world, things can and do happen the way they do in this entertaining play. With some sentimentality, a lot of humor and a dash of nostalgia, Over The River And Through The Woods is a sweet, charming play that makes us feel good about being alive and gets us to appreciate our family. You'll call home after seeing this beautiful show.

Highly Recommended

Tom Williams

Tom99@chicagocritic.com