Students blend comedy, romance

The story isn't corny or contrived, and that's something to appreciate.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- When two people share their first kiss, you'd think the moments that follow would be filled with ecstasy and hope. Not so with Youngstown State University Blackbox Productions' "Romance in D," by James Sherman. When these characters lock lips, the immediate aftermath is hysterically funny, then acutely sad.
Part love story and part comedy, the modern-day "Romance in D" is a good way to kick off another YSU Theater season and to put the all-student Blackbox group to the test of producing a quality show on its own. The students pass easily, but not flawlessly. Performances continue through Sunday in Spotlight Arena Theater in Bliss Hall.
The story
"Romance in D" also is a lesson in communicating. Hungry, aloof, fussy Jewish musicologist Charles Norton (Ryan Charles Ruth) relies on piano notes and chords. His Chicago apartment building neighbor, Isabel Fox (Jennifer McCombs) -- whose self-esteem plunges when her husband abandons her for another, younger woman -- prefers prose.
Charles and Isabel form a strange bond when Isabel tries to kill herself by sticking her head in an oven. Charles smells gas, reports it to authorities and becomes an unintended hero. Still, he seems agitated when Isabel shows up afterward to offer thanks, borrow an egg, try to "make a connection," she says. Somehow, she keeps her foot in the door.
They barely tolerate their parents, but her visiting father, George (David Gohlke) and his hovering mother, Helen (Heidi Davis), have little trouble relating to each other once they meet. The difference appears to be generational, but it's probably rightly attributed to how closely some people guard their hearts.
There's nothing corny or contrived about the story, and that's something to appreciate.
The same goes for Davis as Helen Norton, the mother who can't stop cooking and delivering meals to her grown son. Her voice inflection and facial expressions are so natural that you buy into her character, despite the fact that Davis is a young woman portraying someone who should be at least 60 years old.
Character
Ruth has a slightly wild-eyed, perpetually perturbed look about him that works in his favor. He's enjoyable to watch as he conveys his character's exasperation and concern for Isabel. He and McCombs bring credibility to the friendship between George and Isabel, which is when McCombs really comes alive. Gohlke doesn't sound at all like a man who's made a small fortune in commercial voice-over work, but at least he's convincing as a chivalrous romantic.
Director Matthew Pettitt has done a commendable job in his directorial debut, but he'll have to shoulder the blame for one very annoying mistake on Thursday night. George Fox speaks often of his home on Bimini, which the online Caribbean Pronunciation Guide confirms should be pronounced BIM-ih-nee, not bee-ME-nee. If the actors said it wrong once, they said it 20 times. (It's funny, considering the running joke about the pronunciation of composer Leonard Bernstein's surname.)
The technical crew has done just enough to distinguish between Charles' orderly apartment and Isabel's impersonal dwelling, but Isabel could use a wardrobe makeover.
shaulis@vindy.com