Chicago BeAt … Goodman Theatre’s world premiere production ‘High Holidays’

From left, Keith Kupferer, Rengin Altay, Max Zuppa and Ian Paul Custer share an uncomfortable dinner in Goodman Theatre's world premiere "High Holidays."

For nearly two decades, Skokie-raised playwright Alan Gross tried to spark a screenwriting career in Los Angeles to no avail. But now he’s back on his home turf courtesy of the Goodman Theatre’s world premiere production “High Holidays.” Based on this work, it’s Hollywood’s loss, Chicago’s gain, albeit a modest one. Gross’ family dramady, about a fractured Jewish family coming together in the Chicago suburbs for Rosh Hashanah, is far from perfect. It’s too long. Some scenes are repetitive. Two character-defining traits are dropped, while another character isn’t cohesively crafted. And the show’s broad comic beginning clashes with its dramatic second half.

Yet there are long stretches of grandness in Gross’ writing that authentically illustrates the love that bonds a family and the hatred that tears it apart. And the four players that portray this beguiling brood – Keith Kupferer as father, Rengin Altay as mother, Ian Paul Custer and Max Zuppa as their sons – together forge utterly believable, universal familial bonds, and individually make their characters’ humanity shine through.

The setting is the fictitious Chicago suburb Iroquois, Ill., circa 1963, two months before Kennedy’s assassination. Billy Roman (Zuppa) is too busy playing Native American and backyard football to dedicate himself to his Bar Mitzvah studies; he’s scared to read out loud the ancient Hebrew in the Torah, a pivotal part of the ceremony. Disgruntled father Nate, a shoe salesman working in his dad’s shop, insists the “sub-normal” Billy do what he’s told, although mother Essie is more lenient. Adding to an already tense situation, Billy’s estranged 19-year-old brother Rob (Custer) comes home from Indiana. The star of the family when he was Bar Mitzvah age, Rob’s become a Bob Dylan-loving vagabond, and a harsh critic of his parent’s abuse, racism, naivety and way of life.

When we first meet Billy and Nate, we see father and son suffer through a stuttering problem when they’re agitated or nervous. And yet the characters’ stutters are completely gone by act two, and never referred to again, seemingly forgotten by the family (and playwright). In her first scenes, Essie’s played for big, broad laughs – wearing a bathrobe with her hair wrapped in a towel, Altay drops Jewish phrases and curse words like they’re pungent punch lines, and frequently threatens Billy to intended comic effect, even when brandishing a butcher knife (sort of like Tyler Perry’s gun-toting Madea). But later in act one, Essie suddenly and inexplicably becomes more nurturing and lenient with Billy. Then in act two, there’s a jarring allusion to her incestuous attraction with Rob that’s barely explored. Add an excessive 2 hours and 15 minutes run time, and a handful of scenes that mimic prior exchanges with little progression in story, and you’ve got a play that could benefit from some more development.

So why would Gross’ return to the stage still be a gain for Chicago theater? Because despite all of the flaws, there are several stretches that are riveting and illuminating, funny and tragic, endearing and upsetting, particularly in that second act, when the shtick’s thrown out and “Holidays” blossoms into a domestic drama, a good one at that. Billy and Rob share a scene that expertly evokes the brotherly bonds over seemingly silly family traditions and their disappointed parents. There’s humor here, as Custer’s Rob recalls his embarrassing Bar Mitzvah, and sadness, as he explains an epiphany that forever tarnished his perception of family and faith. Later, Nate and Essie poignantly express the sacrifices they’ve made and the hardships they’ve endured for their little home in the suburbs  – Essie squandered talent for motherhood, Nate settled for living in his father’s shadow – and they candidly reveal their failures as people and parents.

What’s great about Gross’ work is how complex each of these characters are; despite flaws and bitterness and cruelty, it’s easy to empathize with all of them. You can resent Rob for his pompous, cynical attitude and his lack of appreciation, and you can admire him for taking a stand against ignorance and abuse and for following his own dream. You can dismiss the parents for their stern ways, for forcing their children to live out their demands, but you can also appreciate the hardships they’ve endured to make their children’s lives ideally better than there own.  And despite inconsistencies in characters, particularly in Essie, the actors are all extraordinary. It’s a family you see on stage – a mother, a father, and sons – not performers. Steven Robman does a fine directing job given some challenges with the material, and the set design by Kevin Depinet is striking, particularly the evocation of power lines standing like specters against dark tree branches and a sepia sky. In short, “High Holidays” is a bit like the adolescent Billy Roman itself. It’s a work in progress, but there’s still a lot to love about it.

Grade: B-

“High Holidays” runs Tuesdays through Sundays until November 29^th at The Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn. Tickets are $10 to $40. Visit GoodmanTheatre.org for more details.