BWW Reviews: ANNE FRANK AND ME at 2nd Stage Studio in Clearwater

ANNE FRANK AND ME is really two shows in one: A Nineties sit-com and a serious re-creation of the Holocaust. It starts out like a "very special episode" of "Blossom"--a girl who hasn't finished reading The Diary of Anne Frank falls unrequitedly for the popular boy at school while some of her friends question the Holocaust. Then something quite unexpected happens and we are thrust into a dark, resonant recreation of events in Nazi-occupied France more than fifty years earlier--a Jewish teenage girl living a nightmare world parallel to the one that Anne Frank experienced. It's like Night and Fog as written by John Hughes.

The brand new theatre company, 2nd Stage Studio, has chosen Cherie Bennett's adaptation of her novel (written with her husband, Jeff Gottesfeld) as their maiden theatrical voyage. It's always exciting to see a new theatre company start right out of the gates with a play not seen everywhere. The play is perfect for current high school students to help empathize with the characters and to put the Holocaust in terms that they can understand. The original (and powerful) stage version of The Diary of Anne Frank usually does the same thing, but I've seen that many times and have never seen this, so it's a welcome first show.

The play reminds me of the episode in "Twilight Zone: The Movie" where Vic Morrow portrays an anti-Semite who goes back in time and eventually winds up in a box car headed for a concentration camp. Unlike that character, teenaged Nicole in ANNE FRANK AND ME is not a bad girl; she just has better things to do than read The Diary of Anne Frank for school. But when she falls through the proverbial Rabbit Hole (or Rabbi Hole), and winds up as a Jew in the 1940's, she has a rude awakening. The show deals seriously with the ultimate serious subject, and I wish one of the final scenes set in 1944 carried the cathartic horror that the subject matter deserves; 2nd Stage Studio's production is no doubt effective, it just could have been even more so.

The cast is filled with young people of varying abilities, all of whom get an awesome, life-changing experience by performing in front of different audiences and working with different actors from different schools and of various levels. Tommie Davis is sincere as the lead, Nicole. As her sister, Little Bit/Liz Bette, Nicole Lauren has such good energy and a strong command of the stage. She's the youngest one in the cast, but she already seems like an old pro. It's too bad that Davis and Lauren don't look like sisters, but they make up for it with their connection onstage.

The other young actors--Jacob Walters, Zoe Brown, Harmony Gibaldi (in the brief part of Anne Frank) and especially Adrian Bordeaux--do fine work. Best of all is Abby Brazier as Mimi, Nicole's closest confidante. Brazier is like a jolt of electricity whenever she enters a scene. She's so fervent that at times you wish the show centered around her. It reminded me of a recent production of Hamlet where the small part of the gravedigger was so robust, by far the strongest presence in the cast, that we wanted the show to be about him instead of the doomed Danish prince. But Brazier sometimes seemed over the top in the intimate surroundings of the Italian American Club, especially in the early sections of the play, and I preferred her in her more vulnerable, tender moments.

The adult actors include Victor Carr as Principal Urkin and Jean Bernhardt (Nicole's father) and Natalie Sullivan as teacher Bah Zooms and Renee Bernhardt (the mother). Sullivan is especially touching and real; she makes the mother somebody we really care about.

Director Tim Mathews keeps the pace moving, appropriately changing the show's tone from semi-humorous to outright serious. At one moment, the change from an ambulance siren in the 1990's to air raid sirens in the 1940's was wonderfully accomplished. And some of the moments near the end--thanks to Adrian Bordeaux's lighting--were extremely effective. Mathews gets a lot out of his cast. Unfortunately, the blocking is sometimes haphazard, such as the moment Amy Bordeaux as Mary Burns stands on the stage and speaks all of her lines to the upstage cast so much that we never see her face. There's also some moments where everyone is just standing on stage with nothing to do but uncomfortably stand there like statues and say their lines; there needs to be a reason, an objective, for each movement. Some scenes could be re-staged for maximum effect.

I wasn't bothered by the minimal set. Three elongated blocks, like black coffins, are used for various set pieces, from a 1990's bed to school desks. The posters on the black wall in the 1990's scenes--of the movie Titanic and "Saved by the Bell"--seem a bit obvious. But the minimal set works for the somber scenes set in the 1940's. I saw a show last summer with a similar minimal look, but it was of a big, bright, bouncy musical, and therefore seemed inappropriate. Here, with the grave subject matter and at times solemn tone, it actually works.

The pre-show music featured classic songs from the 1990's (and 1940's music rightly played in Act 2). But I think it's a mistake to end the show with the theme song to the TV series, "Friends" ("I'll Be There for You" by the Rembrandts, which also opened the show). ANNE FRANK AND ME builds to a powerful conclusion where the two ages--the 1940's and the 1990's--finally merge. It's a touching moment and we are put in a contemplative mood, putting it all together, reflecting on the show's meaning. Playing the "Friends" theme song here slaps us right out of the mood. Another song, even one of the 1990's but not so forced and peppy, would have worked much better here.

There were a few sound glitches, and some set changes lasted a bit longer than needed. Also, some of the accents needed work and some of the Hebrew words were mispronounced, which should not be the case in a show that places such importance on them.

This is a play especially modeled for teenagers who have a hard time weighing the horror of the Holocaust. ANNE FRANK AND ME places the kids of the modern-era directly in the Anne Frank era. It will make today's youths think, wonder, and hopefully research this incredibly important time in human history. Who knows, maybe they, unlike Nicole, will even read the actual Diary of Anne Frank from beginning to end.

ANNE FRANK AND ME runs thru Sunday, November 2nd. For tickets, please call (727) 944-6442.

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