The Post-Standard News
Archives

March 12, 2002
Section: CNY
Edition: Final
Page: C4
Column: Joan Vadeboncoeur

It has taken an unconscionably long time for "Jake's Women" to make the trek from Broadway to Syracuse. Appleseed 
Productions' mounting of this neglected but highly worthy Neil Simon work deserves commendation. 

This is a very personal play for Simon. Anyone familiar with his life can recognize that it deals with exorcising the 
ghost of his beloved wife, Joan, who died of cancer, and moving on to marriage with actress Marsha Mason. 

Jake, Simon's alter ego, is a writer who conjures his sister, daughters (at two ages), his shrink and dead wife, Julie, 
while dealing with a marital crisis with his current wife, Maggie, an ambitious corporate executive. Confronted with an 
affair, his spouse says she wants a six-month separation, and she takes it, despite Jake's opinion that they'll never get 
back together if they part. 

Although Jake, who also is suffering writer's block, creates these imaginary conversations at his bidding, the women in 
his life hand him advice he doesn't always care to hear. Only Julie, mother of his daughter, continues to be an 
unadulterated delight. 

Act 1 lays it out amusingly, then Act 2 explodes in a riot of recriminations as Jake loses control. Plus, it offers the 
most hilarious comedy sequence of the play. The ending may be predictable, but Simon keeps audiences guessing, 
as well as laughing, until the curtain falls. 

Steve Nicholas' Jake rose from the ashes of a lackluster Act 1 to a heart-wrenching Act 2. The character is meant to 
be a control freak, but the actor failed to project that important facet. Yet in the latter act, he shook off the laid-back 
demeanor and emerged as a human of doubts who learns to trust others. 

Theresa M. Constantine made Maggie an arresting, multifaceted creature. Her one drawback is a tendency to use her 
body stiffly, while her dialogue delivery is facile and nuanced. 

The second-banana comedy characters were deftly delivered by Roseanne Fortino as Jake's movie-fan sister and Cathy 
Greer-English as the shrink who seems a tad incompetent for her work. 

Since one more weekend of shows remains, it would be wise for director Linda Lance, who empathizes keenly with the 
play, to pump up Nicholas' first-act performance. 

Joan Vadeboncoeur's column appears Monday through Thursday in CNY, Friday in Weekend and Sunday in Stars
Magazine. 

Copyright © 2002 The Post-Standard.