Word: shalhoub
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...bare bones of a story are found in the synopsis in the press kit, not in the play itself. A Jewish man (Tony Shalhoub) comes back to his old childhood haunts and visits an old buddy (Vincent Guastaferro), his sister (Brooke Adams) and finally goes back and leaves his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon...
...Night Neither the time (the 1950s) nor the place (the Jersey Shore) is propitious for a gourmet Italian restaurant. But the struggles of the immigrant Pilaggi brothers to impose their delicate risottos on a red-sauce culture are perhaps the year's most unlikely success. Primo, the chef (Tony Shalhoub), has the soul of an artist--watchful, uncompromising, mildly depressive. Secondo, the maitre d' (Stanley Tucci, who, with Campbell Scott, wrote and directed), is trying vainly to be an American entrepreneur. Stumbling toward bankruptcy, they also sail toward wisdom in this beautifully acted and utterly delicious comedy of--shall...
...Pilaggi Brothers, Primo and Secondo (Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci), are simple souls. Italian immigrants, they believe that if they bring the best of their native land's cuisine to America, fortune will inevitably follow. They have, however, picked the wrong time--the 1950s--and the wrong place--the Jersey shore--for culinary proselytizing. Perhaps even the wrong street, for across from their modest establishment stands Pascal's, whose proprietor (Ian Holm) is busy noisily and prosperously ladling red sauce across his customers' tin palates and quietly scheming his rivals' ruin...
...this "crazy Hebe" would just as soon die as give them a dime. History is not so easily intimidated. When World War II begins, his adolescent son Joey (Tony Gillan), inflamed by news of the death camps, enlists in the Navy with tragic results. The surviving son, Charlie (Tony Shalhoub), becomes a prosperous novelist but fails at everything else, from marriage to filial affection. Zaretsky's very life is a reproach: the "dying man with a dead language and no place to go" becomes a millionaire and survives to age 93. Eddie, ever the loser, is incapacitated by a stroke...
Through Gardner's witty alter ego, Shalhoub, the playwright evokes a more innocent -- and more malignant -- era, flavoring the immigrant struggle with the sour salt of Jewish proverbs: "Sleep faster, we need the pillow." Eddie sometimes goes on so long the play could be retitled Monologues with My Children. But there is not a weak spot in the large cast, sensitively directed by Daniel Sullivan. Margulies is a geriatric standout, and Hirsch gives the most uncompromising and indelible performance of his career. Producers are always searching for actor-proof roles. Here is something rarer: role-proof actors...