Nostalgia has a strong pull in times of uncertainty. Perhaps that’s why Neil Simon has been especially popular this theatrical season. His comedies seem familiar and fun, especially for theatergoers who witnessed his prolific stage and screenwriting career, which started in the 1960s. A longtime favorite of regional theater, Simon’s works have also recently been staged by Blackfriars and Rochester Community Players. Now, Geva Theatre gives one of his most well-known plays “Barefoot in the Park” a large-scale treatment running through March 29.  The play first opened on Broadway in 1963, though audiences may be more familiar with the 1967 film adaptation starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda (being screened at the Dryden Theatre on March 7). Geva’s production is helmed by returning director Rachel Alderman, whose previous shows “Dial M for Murder” and “Little Women” suggest a proclivity for period pieces. She has a unique background working with Simon’s plays: in 2022, she co-directed “Lost in Yonkers” at Hartford Stage with Simon’s second wife, Marsha Mason, who also starred in the production.  Loosely autobiographical, “Barefoot in the Park” is set in a fifth floor New York City apartment inspired by the home Simon shared with his first wife. Corie (Lee Harrington) and Paul (Sean-Michael Wilkinson), fresh off a honeymoon spent at the The Plaza, are moving into their first apartment. Corie picked it out and loves it, in spite of (or perhaps because of) its drawbacks: it’s on the fifth floor, no elevator. The bedroom barely has room for a bed. The radiator is broken. They’re in love, so none of that matters, right?  Geva once again hits the set out of the park (figuratively speaking; there are no actual parks onstage) with a visually stunning design by Christopher Swader and Justin Swader, both previous collaborators with Alderman. Though the joke is that apartment 5B is small and run down, the set fills the stage with its grand imperfections. The mint green walls, supposedly just painted, look as aged and stained as the ceiling. There’s a cramped corner with a sink, oven and ice box that passes as a kitchen, and a ladder that doesn’t go nearly high enough to address the hole in one of the panels of the oversized skylight window. But oh, what a view. The frosted window reveals neighboring New York City buildings that look so convincing, you forget the theater has a back wall. Between this set and the bold and colorful costumes designed by Herin Kaputkin, the production is a visual treat. The play opens with Corie (an energetic Harrington, albeit confusingly cast as an inexperienced 20-something) prancing around the apartment while she waits for furniture to be delivered, welcoming a telephone repair man and delivery man bringing wedding gifts (both played by Joe Osheroff, in a gimmick that successfully fooled this critic). The major characters are introduced: her young lawyer husband Paul (a sympathetic Wilkinson), her no-nonsense but loving mother Ethel (an excellent Alison Cimmet) and an eccentric upstairs neighbor, European chef Victor Velasco (a goofy Evan Zes). A scheme to match up Ethel and Victor is introduced. And then it’s intermission. From left, Evan Zes and Alison Cimmet. PHOTO BY RON HEERKENS JR. / GOAT FACTORY MEDIA “That was fast,” an audience member remarked while waiting in the shorter-than-usual line at the bathroom.  Act I is only 45 minutes, and the post-intermission Acts II and III take up the remaining hour 15 minutes and feature the majority of the play’s action and conflict.  Despite the awkwardness of breaking for intermission right after the inciting incident, the actors succeed in finding a comfortable rhythm that plays up the comic timing of the play’s many entrances and exits and witty banter. Light on plot but heavy on antics, the remainder of the play follows a group outing that leads to heavy intoxication and the repercussion of the newlyweds realizing their honeymoon is over.  Humor comes out of exaggerating small moments of everyday life: the heavy panting of every character (other than Corie) after climbing the five flights of stairs, the specificity of Velasco’s eel appetizer and its accompanying ritual, the 0 to 100 fight the couple have in the middle of the night. Some moments land more on cringe than comedy. Are we supposed to laugh when Velasco hits on a married bride less than half his age? Or when an intoxicated Ethel gets coerced into accepting a ride with a drunk stranger? Geva executive director James Haskins’ program note says, “We all need a romantic comedy about now.” I couldn’t agree more. But with a marital conflict that boils down to Corie being too emotional (“I’m not hysterical!” she shrieks), and Paul being too sensibly correct about everything, this piece is uncomfortably entrenched in gender roles of the early 1960s. It would be nice to see a romantic comedy that’s for now, too. “Barefoot in the Park” runs through March 29 at Geva Theatre. More info and tickets here. The post REVIEW | ‘Barefoot in the Park’ at Geva Theatre appeared first on CITY Magazine. Arts. Music. Culture.. ...read more read less