Theater Review:

With the plethora of theatrical works employing the overused stereotype of an impossible Jewish mother and her neurotic, unmarried son who didn’t become a doctor, one can be justifiably cautious when hearing about another play taking on this potentially trite premise.

Fortunately, “Sheldon & Mrs. Levine” at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank wrings enough laughs out of its plot line to keep the audience entertained, while also delving into the complexity of sustaining a family dynamic through difficult circumstances.

When Doris Levine (Sally Struthers) early on tells her son, Sheldon (Jeff Marlow) that “I worry about your penmanship,” you understand that at least a portion of his resentment is justified. Although both are onstage at the same time, their communication takes place by writing letters to each other rather than through direct dialogue in person or by telephone. The content of their correspondence provides the dialogue for the play.

Mom in New York writes to Sheldon in “care of the Missing Persons Bureau of California.” He writes back, and then she does the same. At a point when his mom doesn’t write back for several weeks, he begins to worry, even after he’s emphatically written three times in the same letter that he hates his mother, dutifully signing it, Love, Sheldon.

If you took your mother to the prom, she later caused your marriage to fall apart, and she then complained about your inability to stay married, wouldn’t you have issues? As an aspiring poet who became an accountant in a futile attempt to please his mom, comments such as, “It’s so hard to be creative and suicidal at the same time” make perfect sense.

We follow their verbal and written exchange around the world, through Doris’ second marriage as she becomes Mother Bakahuta, her ascending fame on television talk shows, ‘astro journeys,’ Sheldon’s ‘Elvis’ phase that lands him in prison, and other comical episodes. And even though Doris continually undermines her son’s self-esteem by writing him that “Mother’s Day never lived up to my expectations,” neither of them can do without the other.