World premiere “The Remarkable Thing About Stardust” sparkles at LTM

MANCHESTER — Seeing well-worn, perennial favorites like “Mame” and “Blithe Spirit” never grow old, but there’s something about a brand new production that is daring and exciting.
“The Remarkable Thing About Stardust,” by local playwright Anne Pie and making it’s world premiere at the Little Theatre of Manchester, is not only new, it is very good — something Pie’s many fans have come to expect.
This is the prolific Pie’s fourth show at LTM — a place she calls home. Other productions were “Sing, Vergie, Sing,” in 2008, “Wild Mushrooms” in 2004, and “Front Street” in 2005.
“The Remarkable Thing About Stardust” is her latest, about true love (hence the stardust) and family. It is beautifully and articulately crafted and well performed.
The play opens in present day New York in Milton Stern’s office. His wife, Diana, has just been arrested for loitering after midnight in a cemetery, rip-roaring drunk.
She’s ordered by a judge to seek psychiatric help, which seems like not such a bad idea, considering she keeps bursting out in hysterical tears for apparently no reason.
Debi Freund as Diana Bernadette Fogerty Stern seems to have been born to play this demanding role of a Catholic married to a successful Jewish man who is sporting goods store chain owner, confidently played by Michael Forgetta.
Diana is a sarcastic and funny woman, complaining that her 20-year-old son, Jason, played by Brian Courtemanche, has a girlfriend who “makes my eyes smart” because she has so many body-piercings that in the light she looks like a colander.
She says, “I don’t want to be around her in a thunder storm.”
Her husband, Milton, is the good provider of whom she complains, “you look but you don’t see.”
Forgetta, who plays Milton, evidently had to fill in at the last minute. On opening night he read somewhat surreptitiously from a script, but despite this he did a yeoman’s job and conveyed an amusing, domineering momma’s boy who is more married to his work than his wife.
Sometimes, though, the talking heads go on a little long, despite the actors mixing it up by hitting their marks all over the stage.
Diana finally agrees to see a psychiatrist, played with assurance by Jim Powers, and as the second act unfolds, what first appears as a simple baring of the soul turns into a compelling mystery.
Pie has a real gift for pithy dialog, along with a non-judgmental understanding heart that makes her dysfunctional memorable characters come alive.
It won’t be revealed here, but suffice it to say that “The Remarkable Thing About Stardust” has a believable, unexpected, and fulfilling payoff in the end.

THE REMARKABLE THING ABOUT STARDUST

3 Stars
Location: The Little Theatre of Manchester, Inc., Cheney Hall, 177 Hartford Road, Manchester.
Production: Written by Anne Pie. Directed by Jared R. Towler. Stage manager Tom Goodin. Set design by Greg Cerosky. Lighting design by Lee Hammitt. Sound design by Jim Ryan. Produced by Sara Logan.
Running time: 2 ½ hours, with one 15-minute intermission
Show Times: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m. Sunday at 2 p.m. through August 16.
Tickets: $16 — $23. Seniors over 60 and students receive a discount. Call the box office at 860-647-9824, or visit their website at www.cheneyhall.org
ACTOR…CHARACTER
Debi Freund … Diana Stern
Michael Forgetta … Milton Stern
Jim Power … Dr. James Barlow
Brian Courtemanche … Jason Stern