Russian Transport

[skynyc]

Well, I got a cheap ticket, and yet play was definitely worthy of the money I spent.

 

My two companions and I discussed it for nearly an hour afterwards.

 

The story of a Russian Immigrant family currently living in Brighton Beach, tells the story of two teens, Alex and Mira whose Uncle Boris has just arrived from Russia. Suddenly the very average American family finds themselves enmeshed in a brutal game of threat and fear. Alex, thinking he is helping out his very amiable uncle, is happy to volunteer to do a job for him...and finds himself picking up a young Russian woman who has just arrived at JFK, excited about the prospect of a "modeling job". Her passport and luggage were being carried for her by "Victor" in another car, and Alex is dropping her off in New Jersey, for her first interview. As Alex quickly figures out, he's in WAY over his head.

 

Alex is amazingly played by RAviv Ullman, and I recognized him immediately from a show on the Disney channel: Phil of the Future. And let me tell you all, Uncle Boris spends a lot of time shirtless or in a stunning wife-beater...and Morgan Spector will definitely will be an actor I will follow for the most indecent of reasons. (OH! MY! GOD! HE'S! HOT!) He was the beautiful Italian cousin in View from the Bridge with Scarlet Johannson and Liev Schreiber a couple of seasons ago.

 

Janeane Garafalo is also marvelous as Boris' sister, who seems to be overwhelmed with supporting a family and keeping her two teenagers out of trouble.

 

The playwright has a marvelous feel for dialogue (especially between teens and their parents) and I look forward to future endeavors. I do think that the last five minutes of the play were a little underwritten and overproduced, but the first hour fifty five minutes were terrific.

 

Russian Transport plays at the Acorn on Theater Row on 42nd Street and has been extended to March 25th.