Wasserstein's 'Romantic' Provides Well-Balanced Amusement

Isn't It Romantic, by Wendy Wasserstein, is an amusing look at the struggles two women in their late 20s face as they try to balance the demands of their careers, their parents, their boyfriends and their own independence.

The Harvard-Radcliffe Summer Theater presentation of the play has some nagging problems, but is worth seeing and guaranteed to make you laugh. Wasserstein manages to balance the different aspects of the work very well. She doesn't pull punches with her Jewish mother jokes, but she avoids the kind of vicious self hatred bordering on anti-Semitism that afflicts some Jewish comedy. She also successfully walks the tightrope between family-bashing, man-hating feminism and family-centered, woman ignoring sexism.

The smothering Jewish mother is perhaps the strongest presence in this production. Tasha Blumberg, played strongly by Jessica Fortunate, makes memorable appearances clad in black tights, a tie-dyed lectard and a gold lame top. She's a dancer who just wants her daughter, Janie Blumberg, played by Emily Gardner, to be happy. Janie's happiness is the challenge that the plot of the play follows. She falls in love with a Jewish doctor who is heir to his family's restaurant fortune, but she must eventually choose between staying with him or following her freelance writing career where it leads her.

The doctor, Marty Sterling, is given a sympathetic portrayal by Michael Stone. Stone's endearingly awkward body language and shy behavior make the audience like Marty even as it sometimes cringes at his treatment of Janie.

In a parallel story line, Janie's best friend Harriet Cornwall (Sumalee Gunanukorn), a Harvard M.B.A., climbs the corporate ladder at Colgate-Palmolive while she is sleeping with her boss's boss, Paul Stuart, who is married. Paul (Aaron Zelman) is suitably unctuous. Harriet is ambitious and serves well as the straight woman for many of the jokes on Yiddish pronunciation that had the Loeb Ex audience laughing out loud at the play. Claire Ellis turns in a convincing performance as the corporate achiever Lillian Cornwall, Harriet's motn. Bill Selig and Mark Fish were both serviceable in their supporting roles.

Rosetta Lee's set is functional and uncluttered, serving the play well. Lillian Cornwall's office and her table at the Four Seasons are particularly effectively furnished. Director Emily Drugge keeps the actors moving through the setreasonably well. The light design, by Alan P. Symonds '69, was excellent. What with the strong script and the energetic performances by Fortunato, Zelma, Stone and Ellis, this show could have been a grand slam.

Unfortunately, a muddy sound system makes it difficult to hear the messages left on Janie's answering machine. The answering machine monologues make up a substantial portion of the talking in the play and serve to frame many of the scenes, and someone should have noticed before this play went up that the messages cannot be heard clearly by the audience.

Gardiner's performance as Janie is also problematic She's best when she's angry. The rest of the time, she's too listless and wispy to keep the audience really involved. Part of the problem her, but probably not all of it, is the difficult-to-play character of Janie as written by Wasserstein.

The Harvard Radcliffe Summer Theater production of Isn't It Romantic succeeds overall despite these difficulties. Go see it, for the costumes and the Yiddish puns and Jewish mother jokes and the exploration of modern woman hood. Or just go for the coupons you can cut out of the program, good for discounts at restaurants in Harvard Square.