By Robert St. Martin
Los Angeles, California (The Hollywood Times) 07/28/2023 – Currently on stage at the SkyPilot Theatre Company on Cole Avenue in Hollywood is Gary Morgenstein’s A Black and White Cookie, directed by Tudi Roche. A black and white cookie is a classic New York deli treat, a large cookie with half-chocolate and half-vanilla frosting. It’s also a metaphor for the unlikely friendship between the two old men who are the main characters of this new comedy. Harold Wilson (Tommy Franklin), a 71-year-old Black man, who runs a much-beloved neighborhood newsstand but is facing eviction by a large corporation run by J.N. Pham (Laura Trent). The other protagonist is Albie Sands (Morry Schorr), a newsstand regular and neighborhood denizen who stops by Harold’s newsstand almost daily to pick up a free copy of the previous day’s New York Times and buy a ham-and-swiss sandwich. This play grabbles with the harsh reality of life for many of us in this post-COVID world.
Albie is Jewish although a non-religious man who never had a bar mitzvah and has no problem eating ham-and-cheese sandwiches. A bit of a curmudgeon and an avowed atheist, this ragtag senior citizen, Albie, is a dyed-in-the-wool old-fashioned left winger who once protested the war in Vietnam during the Nixon years. He is outraged to learn the Harold’s newsstand is to become yet another victim of corporate America’s corporate greed. Albie will not allow for this news stand, a symbol of neighborhood stability, to disappear. Almost immediately, Albie rallies a reluctant Harold to protest his eviction. He finds it curious that Harold was once a Marine in Vietnam during that war but rather shocked to learn that Harold has always voted Republican in Presidential elections. Albie has no interested in sports but Harold is an avid fan of the New York Mets, although he can no longer afford the price of tickets to their home games. Instead, he prefers to listen to the games on his portable radio.
As soon as Albie gets the news that the Harold Newsstand will be no more, his deep-seated left wing, 1960’s habits are renewed as are stories of confronting police in demonstrations and expressions of admiration for Ho Chi Minh, Castro and others. He even wears a Che Guevara t-shirt. He is obnoxious, loud, but determined and finally wins over the recalcitrant Harold who, in his heart, knows that the newsstand represents the best in him. The background of the play is the end of the COVID pandemic, from which Harold has lost a few older friends and he has remained healthy. His business faltered hugely during the COVID shut-down and now landlords are attempting to recoup their losses by raising rents exorbitantly. He reopened his business after the pandemic lockdown only to find his rent has skyrocketed.
Harold, a Vietnam vet, had planned to move to Florida with his niece, Carol (Aisha Kabia), but decides to delay this move until he finds out if he can keep his business into which he has poured thirty years of his life. He has even saved the front page of every New York Post from his very first day, accumulating thousands of them in cartons his niece is reluctant to transport to Florida. Adding to his lack of willingness to cave in is the fact that he owns his own home, decrepit as it might be, and feels attached to it.
Carol, knowing that Harold is a Mets fan, has bought a subscription to a cable TV service that will allow him to keep up with his favorite baseball team, but then she hears of Albie’s interference with her plans for her uncle which includes his signing an agreement proffered by the real estate company to compensate him in the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars. His determination to stay would derail that windfall.
Carol who lives in Clearwater, Florida, has a fairly successful toy store that she owns, so we are to understand her business sense. She is bossy, prejudiced, opinionated, and also a lesbian. In reference to an Asian-owned corporation evicting Harold from his newsstand on 9th Street, she is trying to get Harold to give up the right. When she “Asians are just Jews with better noses,” she expounds when she hears that her uncle’s protest is being led by the Jew, Albie, she expounds: “Asians are just Jews with better noses.” She thinks that her father is being screwed by a Jewish lawyer causing him to lose his business and commit suicide. Her bitterness is palpable. But Alfie is no lawyer.
The arc of the play occurs when Harold decides on a rainy night to go find Alfie at the place where he thinks he might live – was it 7th Steet or 5th Street in the Lower East Side? What he discovers that Alfie is basically an old Jewish man, full of principles but homeless – something that does not match the stereotypical image of successful Jews in New York with lots of money. Suddenly Harold is looking out for Alfie instead of Alfie buoying up Harold. Amidst the battlefield of conflicting interests, the comradery of these two old men shines in the remainder of the play.
Alfie encourages Harold to try to get help by publicizing Harold’s eviction and making it a community issue worth public protest – even attracting a reporter Mitchell (Dylan Bowers) to cover the story, but to no avail. Finally, the two get a meeting with the corporation and J.N. Pham (Laura Trent), who is actually Vietnamese-American but unwilling to change the rental or eviction terms. The situation looks bleak for Harold’s future but even darker for Alfie who poured his soul into trying to save the newsstand. The final outcome is an empowering lesson about people down on their luck having the faith to persevere.
Gary Morgenstern’s Black and White Cookie previously was performed in New York and received Broadway World’s Best Play Award. His Perry Award-winning poignant drama A Tomato Can’t Grow in the Bronx is about a working-class family in the tumultuous 1960s, while his Free Palestine tackles the threat to academic freedom, antisemitism and political bullying triggered by the firing of a Jewish social studies teacher. His latest work is a romantic dramedy Walking Charlie, about a widowed owner of a door factory and a recent immigrant who’s fled Venezuelan oppression, brought together by a pug dog named Charlie.
The play is directed by Tudi Roche who has appeared on Broadway in Harrigan n’ Hart and A Day in Hollywood / A Night in Ukraine and toured with The Magic Show. She has also performed in over 30 regional theatres. Tommy Franklin who plays Harold has a long record of television work, including Fresh Off the Boat, Shameless, and Bliss. You may have seen him in L.A. stage performances of Mo Bainey’s Black Bottom as well as Macbeth. Morry Shorr who plays Albie practiced law for many years but recently returned to acting in SkyPilot’s production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Divorce and Laughter is the Best Medicine. Aisha Kabia, who plays Carol, has worked with the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival. Her television credits include Legacy, The Good Place, S.W.A.T., Girl Meet World and Transformers 5.
The SkyPilot Theatre Company was founded in 2004 as a non-profit ensemble company of resident playwrights, actors, and directors in Los Angeles. In 2010, SkyPilot moved away from producing revivals and began writing and producing only original plays. A Black and White Cookie opened on July 21 and runs through August 20, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 3 PM. The theatre is located at 905 Cole Avenue in Hollywood near Gold’s Gym off of Santa Monica Boulevard. Tickets are $40. For tickets, go to: https://cookie.bpt.me.