Mike Burstyn, photo by Cyona Burstyn
Writers Joseph Bologna’s and Richard Krevolin give you a chance to experience Mike Burstyn as the legendary gangster Meyer Lansky at St. Luke’s Theatre. It is a monodrama set in Tel Aviv in 1970, in which the ageing Jewish mafioso is applying for an Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. As this first-generation American anxiously awaits his fate, he struggles to reconcile his material success—and the dark path he followed to become American Royalty—with his present desire to live in Israel.
How much of this is Lansky and how much the playwrights’ interpretation is anybody’s guess. But what you essentially get in this intermission-less drama is a riveting portrait of a whip-smart crime boss. Based on the book But He Was Good To His Mother, the play becomes a constellation of anecdotes about the club (“Lucky” Luciano, Bugsy Siegel, Joe Colombo, and others) seen through the prism of Lansky’s life. We also learn how the Polish-born Lansky had an insatiable ambition to be “somebody,” and that his American dream would gradually become toxic, and lead him into a cul-de-sac. Lansky is represented here much like Shakespeare’s Shylock, persecuted for his wealth management systems, and a scapegoat in an anti-Semitic world. Even before the drama begins, a multi-media projection shows us a scroll with a quote from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. It reads: “In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, /But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, / Obscures the show of evil?”
Burstyn is well-cast as Lansky. His diction can cut glass, and his elastic, modulating voice succeeds in capturing Lansky’s charm as well as his natural cunning in financial business dealings. Dressed in a black 3-piece suit, and moving easily across the stage to schmooze with the audience, Burstyn gives Lansky real flesh-and-blood. A seasoned international actor, playgoers of a certain age will recall Burstyn on Broadway in The Megilla of Itzik Manger, Barnum and Ain’t Broadway Grand, and in numerous Off Broadway shows. In this current show, he really has a chance to show off his acting chops. Burstyn has already performed Lansky at the Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles in the summer 2008. Little wonder that he looks completely comfortable in the current production.
One of Burstyn’s best acting moments is when he recounts Lansky’s rejection by his father at age 19. Burstyn’s Lansky tells us how his immigrant “sweatshop” father, outraged that his son would join with Italian underworld figures, spat at him and pronounced him dead (“YOU ARE NOT SICILIAN! YOU ARE A JEW! AND NOW, IN MY EYES, YOU ARE A DEAD JEW!”) Adding weight to his words, his father proceeded to cover all the mirrors in their home and to sit “shiva” for his Prodigal Son. According to this drama, even Lansky’s mother couldn’t patch the rift between father and son. In any case, Lansky and his dad never spoke to each other again.
The play is tightly written--but puzzling in its final moments. It shows Lansky in some kind of a nervous breakdown, emotionally articulating his regrets for his past to his parents. Not only does it not mesh with Lansky’s urbane image throughout the evening, but the conclusion is downright jarring, and excessively sentimental.
What did seem right in the final scene, however, was the recording of Bing Crosby’s song “Would You Like to Swing on a Star?” The song wafts into the drama early, weaves in and out of pivotal scenes, and emphatically bookends the drama.
To be sure, the play is worth seeing in its intimate space at St. Luke’s Theater. Without being too preachy, Lansky really delivers a wallop of a lesson. This play may not be the definitive work on the mobster Meyer Lansky, but it is a compelling and thought-provoking piece. Bologna has directed inventively in Josh Iacovelli’s rather minimalist set. And Burstyn’s portrait of Lansky is first-rate.
At St. Luke’s Theater, 308 West 46th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues).
Tickets range from $31.50 to $56.50.
Call 212/239-6200 or visit http://www.telecharge.com