Susan Granger’s review of “I’m Not Rappaport” (Aug., 2002 – Booth Theater)
When the curtain opens on this revival of Herb Gardner’s Tony Award-winning comedy, you see Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen as two old geezers sitting in Central Park, bathed in an autumnal glow, as they battle the ravages of age. You sense immediately that you’re watching two old pros at the top of their game. Indeed, 17 years ago, Judd Hirsch won a Tony playing the feisty 81 year-old New Yorker who spends his days on a park bench. And now he seems to have an even better grasp of the part, while Ben Vereen makes the perfect foil for his hilarious repartee. They’re so convincing that it’s hard to believe they’re still only 67 and 54 years old, respectively. Under Dan Sullivan’s direction, the geriatric dilemmas the characters grappled with in the ’80s seem to have even more insight and relevance today in our aging society, as does the old vaudeville routine from which the title comes. Judd Hirsch plays Nat, the rabble-rousing Marxist, who can fend off muggers but has more trouble with his well-meaning daughter (Mimi Lieber) who is determined to relocate him to a suburban retirement. Ben Vereen is Midge, the almost-blind building superintendent, who’s hiding from the tenants’ committee chairman (Anthony Arkin) who plans to fire him. While Nat brazenly drives the narrative, Midge gives it a dignified, poignant balance. (The late Cleavon Little played Midge in the 1985 Broadway production, and there was a 1996 movie version, starring Walter Matthau and Ossie Davis.) Tony Walton’s set, Pat Collins’ lighting and Teresa Snider-Stein’s costumes add to the gentle ambiance. Not only is it an impressive, highly entertaining revival but the witty, warm and wise “I’m Not Rappaport” leaves you laughing – and a bit happier to still be alive.