Theater Review—

‘Lil’s 90th’ Is Humorous While Eye-Opening

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN — It was Bette Davis who said “Growing old is not for sissies.”  That could well be the catch phrase for Darci Picoult’s Lil’s 90th, currently having its world premiere at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre.

Although it is subtitled “A late-life love story,” the  play’s realism — including  Frank  J. Alberino’s beautifully crafted stage design and flawless acting from the cast of five — is all too accurate in capturing the cruel and ominous  signs of the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

On the surface, the play deals with a happy, functional (as opposed to dysfunctional) family’s plan for a grand celebration of a ninetieth birthday. Lil Eldridge always wanted to be a showgirl, but was told at her first and only audition to forget it, because she couldn’t sing.

Now, after 65 years of marriage to her beloved Charlie, Lil has arranged to rent a seedy nightclub in the East Village, where she will finally get to perform in front of an audience of friends and relatives. Emceed by her daughter Stephanie, the event will  feature speeches, tributes, and musical back-up by her grandson Tommy and his girlfriend, as Lil finally gets to belt out her repertoire.

From the opening scene in which Ruth and Charlie go over last minute details, as they share lunch in the kitchen of their apartment, the audience gets a niggling sense of foreboding as Charlie displays minor lapses… forgetting that cousins had moved from Philadelphia to Florida, and then repeating the same sense of surprise at that news a few moments later.

When Stephanie arrives to help Lil choose her outfit, she brings her father a book of Sudoku puzzles, but is apparent that he can’t understand what they are.

Charlie is a warm, outgoing, generous man whose charm and considerable social skills enable him to mask the encroaching deficits. Furthermore, his family engages in a practice of collective denial.

Apart from Lil’s outbursts of snappish impatience, nobody acknowledges that anything is happening.

Until, that is, Lil realizes that he has fallen into the clutches of swindlers, who intend to loot the couple’s life savings by a lottery scam that promises him a million dollar pay-off (to be a birthday surprise for Lil) if he sends them the money to cover taxes and fees.

As the stress of their confrontation exacerbates his symptoms, David Margulies gives a masterful  portrayal of the mix of anxiety,  rage, confusion and foxy purposefulness. He is more than balanced by Lois Smith, torn by fear, horror, and ultimately loyalty to the man she has loved for so long.

Caught in the middle are Kristine Nielsen as the daughter who, despite the failures and limitations in her own life, is trying to make this wonderful thing happen for her parents,  Nick Blaemire, as the broke but aspiring young musician, and Lucy Walters,  as the new girlfriend, who wonders what Tommy has dragged her into.

As I said, the acting is terrific; the plotting is extremely well done. There are numerous laughs generated by the interaction of the characters, but the laughter is a bit nervous. As the audience sat in rapt attention throughout (nobody went to sleep during this show, as sometimes happens with matinee goers) many of their faces wore troubled expressions.

With Alzheimer’s a problem of growing proportions , we are all too familiar with its ravages. Whether it is fear for ourselves, the pain of seeing its effect on people we care about, or the problem of knowing what to do as the inevitable progression of the disease makes independent living impossible, we are all threatened by it.

Darci Picoult’s play gives few answers, except to support the idea that love is real, and family loyalty is important. Even as a personality becomes erased, the power of memory can transcend the loss, and preserve the meaning of a lifetime.

(Performances continue until February 7. Call 203-787-4282 or visit LongWharf.org for curtain and ticket details.)