Friday, January 6, 2012

Mothers And Daughters And Fathers And Sons

They say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and that seems to hold true for at least two families appearing on South Florida stages this weekend.

Palm Beach ArtsPaper reports that The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, a story of a mother and her daughters, features an actual mother and daughter; the venerable Laura Turnbull, and her daughter Arielle Hoffman.  The show is Hoffman's professional theatre debut.
In real life, the two actresses have a great relationship. “Characters like her have so many issues and have so much underlying who-knows-what. It’s just more challenging, to play someone that I truly am not like,” says Turnbull. “Because she’s just such a horrible human being, (she) is more fun to play than the people who are nice, the Donna Reed, everything-is-wonderful types. For me, it’s a challenge to not be the kind of mom I am. I love my kids. I am so proud of them.”

For vivacious, gregarious Hoffman, it is a relief to play characters unlike themselves. “I think it would be really hard if it were closer to how it was in real life. If, in reality, we had a relationship that wasn’t good, if we didn’t get along. She calls me ‘ugly’ several times in the play. If that’s how I knew she felt in real life, I couldn’t do it night after night.”
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds opens at Palm Beach DramaWorks this weekend, and plays through January 29.

Down in Miami Beach, country music songwriter Gary Morris stars as Shlomo Carlebach in Soul Doctor.  But in flash back sequences, he plays Shlomo's father, and Morris' son, Garon, plays the young Shlomo's twin brother, Eli Chaim. Garon also understudies the younger Shlomo.  The Sun-Sentinel talks with Gary Morris.
"What is it about him that drew all these people?" Morris asked. "He was a heartfelt music guy. He only used, maybe, three or four chords. But his music was haunting. We like to say it was major ... in a minor key."
Soul Doctor plays at The Colony Theater in Miami Beach through this Sunday, then moves to Fort Lauderdale's Parker Playhouse through January 29th.

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