‘Harry’s Friendly Service’ Play is set in Youngstown but can touch everyone

By Guy D’Astolfo

The play is now receiving its world premiere.

PITTSBURGH — “Harry’s Friendly Service” will attract Mahoning Valley residents for its undiluted Youngstown flavor.

But the play, written by Youngstown native Rob Zellers, far surpasses its setting and subject matter. It can stand tall on any stage in any city.

Zellers’ expertly constructed and beautifully cohesive drama revolves around a hard-bitten group of friends who have become like a family. The dialogue is electric and entertaining, and Zellers uses it to paint characters who are very well-drawn: flawed but likable, outgoing but deep.

The story is tight and transcendent, satisfying and moving. Zellers nails down most of the loose ends — although he leaves one big mystery out there to ponder.

His play has the power and close-quarters intensity of Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller, and matches both playwrights in its depiction of relationships and in its resolution.

“Harry’s,” presented by Pittsburgh Public Theater, got its world premiere Friday at the O’Reilly Theater, a modern and intimate 600-seat facility.

Thursday’s press night audience witnessed a golden intersection of an engaging story, actors who understand their characters, and a set that sells it. From the start, director Ted Pappas keeps the pace rapid and the rhythm engaging. Most of the action happens outside the station; but all that really matters happens within.

The two-act play is set entirely in the greasy interior of Harry’s Friendly Service, a gas station in downtown Youngstown in 1977. The station has more or less become a front for Harry’s bookie operation.

Harry is a hard guy, who likes to keep the liquor-fueled card game going with his pals Skiddie, who helps him collect bets; Tina, who runs the burlesque theater next door; and John, a young and struggling lawyer pal whom he’s helped over the years.

Into this scenario comes Emily, Harry’s 20-year-old daughter whom he hasn’t seen in 12 years. She’s a do-gooder who is eager to re-establish the relationship that Harry would just as soon leave buried.

Outside those walls, Youngstown is going through upheaval. Steelworkers are on strike, and mills are closing. Everyone can sense that the world, as they’ve known it, is about to change forever.

Harry works for the Carducci family, the local mob headed by his old boyhood chum, Carmine. But he’s a hardheaded maverick and runs afoul of the Carduccis.

Meanwhile, a relationship begins to form between Emily and John.

Ed Hyland is a powerhouse as Harry, creating a character so defined and so perfectly “Youngstown,” that all future actors in this role will be measured against him. Hyland gives Harry animal strength and a gruff exterior. Callous, self-centered and out for a good time, Harry clearly runs the show.

He lets down his tough veneer just once — and to unforgettable effect.

Tressa Glover is Emily, a plain-jane girl who blossoms. She is a do-gooder, but also eager to make up for the life she has missed by growing up in an orphanage. Glover is never more accurate in portraying her character’s spirit than when she throws herself into a morra game. The result is delightful (“cinquaaaaaa!”).

Brooks Almy is dead-on as Tina, a former stripper with a heart of gold. Sporting some big hair and tight one-piece pantsuits that must’ve been in style back then, Almy looks and —more importantly — knows the type. Tina sees only the good in people and places, even if she is surrounded by gamblers, strippers and the curious men who cross their paths. At one point, she says a trip to the Park Burlesque has been “a rite of passage for Youngstown boys for years.”

Joel Ripka, a Jake Gyllenhaal look-alike, plays the troubled John, earnest but haunted by demons that always threaten to submerge him. Larry John Meyers is Skiddie, a jovial older gent who dresses dapper and acts as the voice of reason. Meyers bestows on his character the look and friendly demeanor of somebody you see every year at the Mount Carmel Italian Festival.

There are only two other characters in the play. Daryl Heysham plays Sammy Carducci, a cocky but not so fearsome mobster who started at the top because he’s the boss’s son. Alex Coleman is Carmine Carducci, his father and mob kingpin.

Heysham and Coleman don’t just do the “Sopranos” thing. They’ve known Harry all their lives so they keep it real (although personally, I would prefer just a little more gangster attitude out of Coleman).

Scenic designer James Noone has gone to great lengths in the name of realism. The white-tiled gas station, the kind that scarcely exists anymore, is weathered and outdated, with greasy dirt staining the corners. It has that “hasn’t been mopped in a decade” look. Piles of dirty papers and dusty oil cans are piled up on the shelves; old “welcome to Ohio” signs and auto parts are tacked up on the walls. Most evocative however, is the bell that occasionally clangs twice when a car pulls up to the pumps outside.

There were expected to be Youngstown references in the script, but it came as a surprise just how many. The dialog is so Youngstown-centric it’s amazing, and some older Mahoning Valley residents in the audience registered their recognition. The references are non-stop and nostalgic, because most of them are long gone. You’ll hear talk of Idora Park, Lazar’s Market, Ravers Restaurant and even former Vindicator columnist Esther Hamilton. And you will actually hear Dan Ryan, the late talk-show host on WKBN-AM 570.

Zellers also manages to work in — loosely disguised, of course — some of those “only in Youngstown” stories that have become legend. They provide unduplicate-able fodder for the playwright.