Theatre Palisades Presents ‘The Prisoner of Second Avenue’

By MAGNOLIA LAFLEUR | Reporter

Dramatic acting, feathered with specks of humor, energetically buttered over perfectly punched dialogue that formed a palpable silhouette of current times is what one can expect when watching “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” at Theatre Palisades.

Resurrected from the words of the most awarded playwright of stories like “The Odd Couple,” and “Barefoot In The Park,” Neil Simon’s play “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” tells the story of Mel Edison, a high-paid executive of a top Manhattan firm—played by the tour de force actor Jud Meyers—who is suddenly laid off.

He finds himself dealing with a mid-life crisis at 47 years old. Mel is a suddenly unemployed man who recently discovers that the world he has been living in has been weaponized against his happiness and prosperity, Edison’s nervous breakdown is tempered by his doting wife Edna—played by the lovable Ashley Adler—who cajoles him into seeking help.

His frustrations are compounded by his  noisy apartment neighbors and the stressors of living in the expensive and polluted New York City. The height of his angst reaches a crescendo when he is robbed and his psychiatrist dies with $23,000 of his money.

Directed by Gail Bernardi and produced by Sherman Wayne and Martha Hunter, the play features long-time actors Patricia Butler as Pauline, Hunter as Jessie, Laura Goldstein as Pearl and Ben Lupejkis as Harry.

A reflective and cathartic performance, the play was a perfect invocation to what many have felt during the last two years: inordinate confusion and frustration screamed in farcical notes.

Her second play at Theatre Palisades, but approximately her 40th play ever, director Bernardi was thrilled to finally be back performing after the two year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, explaining that many of their table reads were done via Zoom.

“We have a very wonderful cast,” Bernardi told the Palisadian-Post. “In light of the pandemic, we have been getting fairly decent houses like all the other houses and the actors have been performing at the top of their game, whether it’s a big or small audience. After working half in Zoom and in-person, we’ve come out with a great show.”

An incredibly cohesive play, Theatre Palisades found a cast that truly felt like a family and never left an impression of having done anything via Zoom. Every performance was tight and dedicated, especially that of Adler and Meyers, the leads whose performances were like strong coffee: invigorating, assertive and enlivening.

“I feel that it is a message that is incredibly timely,” Butler said to the Post. “A timely message: We have to survive, we have to find a way to survive no matter what life throws at us, and it’s going to throw, you have to find a way to move on. But, I’m the kind of outfit that goes like this [makes fist pounding display] when hitting a role, but this reminds me so much of my own siblings, so it was very easy to jump into this role.”

After losing his job, the character Mel begins the life as an unemployed man pacing around his apartment in pajamas, listening to a radio show every morning at 10 a.m. that spurs an epiphany that not only changes his view on life, but serves as a catalyst that drives him to seek counsel in dealing with his new found reality, while also reconciling his bad habits and self-indulgent past.

“There is a plot, Edna. It’s very complicated, very sophisticated, almost invisible,” Mel strongly whispers to his wife Edna during the play. “A plot to change the system. To destroy the status quo. It’s not just me they’re after, Edna. They’re after you. They’re after our kids, my sisters, every one of our friends … The working force in this country today is unemployed, not because of a recession, not because of wages and high prices, but because of a well organized, calculated, brilliantly executed plot … It is the sudden, irrevocable, deterioration of the spirit of man. It is man undermining himself, causing a self-willed, self-imposed, self-evident, self destruction. That’s who it is.”

Actress and producer Hunter was elated to do another Neil Simon play. She described the playwright as a “fan favorite” in Pacific Palisades and was pleased to bring a dramedy that touches on the frustrations that some experience in the world, blanketed with humor.

“And that’s Neil Simon, he tries to find the light side of the human condition,” Hunter said. “He is able to touch on ideas that are real with a sense of humor.”

Wayne, producer and Theatre Palisades set designer of 19 years, was eager to open the door to the Palisades community after so much time away.

“It is our job to entertain the audience in some way,” Wayne explained. “And I like the development of the characters. It’s very different, that’s the challenge in this play. Neil Simon is ha-ha jokes and he wrote all these plays, all hits on Broadway, then his wife passed away and he became darker, so this is about a man having a nervous breakdown. So what’s funny about that? Well, the audience gets to sit back knowing it’s not them. Like watching someone slip on a banana peel, it’s funny because it’s not you.

“And theater is about that communal experience, to feel something together. There’s nothing like seeing a live show.”

This weekend is the last chance to catch the show: The play will run Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m., and its last showing will be on Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m. For more information or to purchase tickets,  visit theatrepalisades.org or email sylvia.grieb@gmail.com.