Italian-American Family Drama ‘ A Room Of My Own’ At Seven Angels

“A Room of My Own,” a recent off-Broadway success that’s now at Seven Angels Theatre with much of its original cast, is an old-fashioned melodrama — not far removed from “I Remember Mama” — about the daily struggles of a tight-knit, loud-mouthed family.

That the family swears and farts volubly doesn’t make it seem any more realistic, or any less heartwarming. The play’s fourth wall is frequently broken by its onstage narrator/playwright character — played with comic angst and gravitas by Waterbury native Michael Lombardi (of TV’s “Rescue Me”). These creative intrusions add to, rather than distract from, this story of love, survival and cultural change in 1970s New York.

“A Room of My Own” has the honor of being the first Christmas-themed play of an especially festive 2016-17 Connecticut theater season. Set in 1979, the plot concerns a small boy (Christian Michael Camporin, swearing like a sailor boy and holding his own against the grown-ups) who asks Santa for an Atari console. Mostly, though, the boy just wants his own room, so he doesn’t have to share a bed in the small, squalid apartment.

The family is inescapable: a father Johnny Tammaro, (channeling Paul Sorvino) who can’t forget about the family fortune he was denied; a mother (performed with full-bodied world-weariness by Joli Tribuzio) who has gambling and shoplifting problems; an uncle who exudes all the stereotypes of New York’s gay culture 40 years ago. As Uncle Jackie, David Valcin makes his first entrance in cut-off shorts and a light-blue mesh shirt; for the second act, he’s in polyester.

There’s also a surprise appearance by an aunt whose inheritance has been coveted by her brother for 25 years. For the first weekend of the Waterbury run, the role of Aunt Jean was played by the Seven Angels’ founder and artistic director Semina DeLaurentis (whose long acting resume includes originating the role of Sister Amnesia in “Nunsense”). For the rest of the run, Aunt Jean will be played by Liza Vann, who originated the role in New York. The part is not that different from Uncle Ben in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” — the relative whose good fortune is resented by his kin.

There are other tragedy archetypes in “A Room of My Own,” too, including disappointments, low self-esteem and a host of emotional problems. But the play is overwhelmingly a comedy. A frantic, furious, claustrophobic small-apartment big-hearted comedy. It’s far closer to “The Honeymooners” than it is to “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

The Playwright Explains

“It’s scary putting this play out there, since it’s about my family,” Charles Messina confessed in a phone interview earlier this month. Messina not only wrote “A Room of My Own,” but directed both of the productions the play has had in New York and Waterbury.

“Any hardworking community,” Messina says, can relate to it. “Regular people come to this play and see themselves.”

Yet, the playwright quickly adds, “A Room of My Own” is also “very specifically about died-in-the-wool Italian-Americans who have lived for several generations in tenement apartments. It’s about the influence that this community, the church, the art world and the gay community all had on me when I was growing up.”

He says that DeLaurentis saw the play off-Broadway in February. “She loved it. And it’s about an Italian-American working class community, so it speaks to Waterbury as much as it does to Greenwich Village.”

“I didn’t do a lot of rewrites for this production,” the playwright says, though he might before “A Room of My Own” returns to New York next year. Whoopi Goldberg saw it in New York and offered to produce a TV adaptation.

The Seven Angels staging of “A Room of My Own” features three of the same cast members as the New York premiere. “I cast the show myself,” Messina says. “Everything I write is so personal. The specificity is so important. It’s about ethnic authenticity.”

He was pleased to find Michael Lombardi, an accomplished actor who grew up in Waterbury, to play the central role of Carl Morelli. Based on the playwright himself, Carl is seen onstage writing the play as it unfurls around him. Adult Carl, as he’s known in the program, also converses with Little Carl, the child version of himself. “This is a play about a guy who comes home.”

The family-based comedy/drama has developed family connections within its casts as well. The New York production starred Ralph Macchio, of “Karate Kid” fame, as Adult Carl. At Seven Angels’, Macchio’s daughter Julia (seen last season at the Shubert in New Haven starring in a national tour of “Flashdance — The Musical”) is featured as Little Carl’s older sister Jeannie.

“This one is really close to my heart,” Messina says of the play he calls “40 years in the making. It’s a true ensemble piece, where every person is a character study. It’s got to be that personal. It’s got to have that hook.”

“A ROOM OF MY OWN,” written and directed by Charles Messina, is at the Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Road, Waterbury, through Oct. 16. Tickets are $38 to $58. 203-757-4676, sevenangelstheatre.org.