The Last Night Of Ballyhoo Script

Last Updated on May 5, 2015, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 1428. Act I The Last Night of Ballyhoo opens in the living room of the Freitag/Levy home, where Lala is decorating a Christmas tree. The Last Night of Ballyhoo. A comedy/drama by Alfred UhryNovember 7 – December 6, 2008. By the author of Driving Miss Daisy, Alfred Uhry’s funny and heartwarming story of the Freitag family is a study of social demands and elitism among the Jewish community in Atlanta in 1939.

The Department of Theatre and Dance in Florida Atlantic University's Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters presents 'The Last Night of Ballyhoo,' a play by Alfred Uhry. The play runs from Friday, April 10 through Sunday, April 19 in the Studio One Theatre, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus.

Arizona Repertory Theatre tackles a weak script in The Last Night of Ballyhoo: The last night of: Ballyhoo, by Alfred Uhry, takes place in 1939 in the Atlanta home of an assimilated Jewish.
The Department of Theatre and Dance in Florida Atlantic University's Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters presents 'The Last Night of Ballyhoo,' a play by Alfred Uhry. The play runs from Friday, April 10 through Sunday, April 19 in the Studio One Theatre, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus. The play takes place in December 1939.

The play takes place in December 1939. Hitler has invaded Poland, while in Atlanta, Georgia, the city is celebrating the world premiere of 'Gone with the Wind.' The Freitag family of Atlanta identifies with being American southerners more than being German Jews. They, along with their fellow wealthy German Jews in Atlanta, are more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the annual social Jewish event of the season.

Shows are on Fridays at 7 p.m.; Saturdays at 7 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 p.m. There will also be a 2 p.m. showing on Saturday, Feb. 21, and there will be a talkback after the Sunday, April 12 matinee. General admission tickets are $20; students, faculty, staff, alumni and children under age 12 may purchase tickets for $12; and group prices are available. Tickets can be purchased by calling 1-800-564-9539, www.fauevents.com or at the box office in FAU's Student Union, Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Playwright Alfred Uhry found fame in the 1980s with Driving Miss Daisy, a Southern play about friendship, loyalty and prejudice.

But have you seen Uhry’s other important (and equally Southern) play? It’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo, a Tony-winning script in 1997. We recall only one previous production hereabouts, at the Sacramento Theatre Company nearly a decade ago.

Ballyhoo is a drama about coming of age and finding one’s identity, set in the small, cozy, social world of Atlanta’s affluent Jewish families, circa 1939. Specifically, it’s the Freitag/Levy family, who live well, if not extravagantly, given the time.

The story begins as the Nazis are starting their rampage in Europe … but the local premiere of film Gone with the Wind is creating a bigger stir in Atlanta—and daughter Lala (a college dropout and a bit of an ugly duckling played by Shannon Kendall) is starstruck.

In addition, it’s December, and Lala is decorating the Christmas tree—a family tradition, even though the family is Jewish, of German background. This distinctly Christian symbol strikes visitor Joe (Tyler Thompson)—likewise Jewish, but from New York and of Polish-Russian background—as odd. But then, the Frietag/Levy family seems to know little about the faith.

Lala needs a date for Ballyhoo, a debutante ball for the South’s Jewish aristocracy. In fact, Lala’s mother Boo (Marsha Black) regards Ballyhoo as the last, best opportunity to help her daughter land a husband. Joe, handsome and unattached, soon becomes the focus of Lala’s intense attention. But Joe’s more interested in Sunny (Alyce Hartman), Lala’s better-educated cousin, and Sunny reciprocates his overtures.

Lala’s mother Boo doesn’t want Joe marrying either of them—she takes a dim view of “the other kind”—Jews from a Polish-Russian background. But Joe is quietly encouraged by paunchy family patriarch Adolph (Stephen Miller), a measured, tolerant man who takes a long view of domestic disputes.

It’s a lovely, thoughtful, semi-autobiographical script (Uhry attended Ballyhoo as a teen), well-served in Imprint Theatre’s cleanly executed little production (directed by Amanda Aldrich), with nicely built sets (Regan Archer) and clever costumes (Marilyn Wilkison).

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