RECONCILING WITH SHANLEY’S PAST

In Italian American Reconciliation, playwright John Patrick Shanley, best known for Moonstruck and Doubt, returns to the Bronx of his youth where conversations required full hand choreography, and no emotion was considered too loud or hazardous. This love story is set in Little Italy in 1986, the year of the play’s first reading, but it does feel like the Bronx, a place where you were more likely to find a house with a backyard, a neighborhood, and peaceful small Italian restaurants. Refreshingly, Shanley sidesteps the usual meatball-and-mobster clichés, offering instead a classic, offbeat take on a tight community where heartache and humor take center stage. Now revived in a new production at The Flea Theatre, directed by Austin Pendleton, this romantic tale finds new life with a passionate small cast.

At the center of the chaos is Huey (played with conviction by Wade McCollum), a hopeless romantic on a mission to win back Janice (Linda Manning), his ex-wife, the very woman who once shot and killed his dog, and tried to kill him as well. More than being in love, he seems driven by an anxious need for emotional closure, and a desperate grasp for identity. Robert Farrior‘s Aldo functions as comic relief and philosophical counterpoint; he is the sardonic best friend with too much swagger and not enough self-awareness, always ready with a joke, a jab, or a warning. But his posture is a defense mechanism, he is only terrified of being hurt by love and Farrior is spot on playing both sides of his character. Mia Gentile’s Theresa is the ideal heartbroken counterpoint, and the inimitable Mary Testa rounds out the ensemble with style and grit as Aunt May, a Bronx oracle who doles out wisdom with a spoon of minestrone and tough love.

Pendleton’s direction finds the sweet spot between farce and tenderness, and visually the production is grounded. Annie Garrett-Larsen‘s lighting design and Ariel Pellman‘s costumes capture the play’s time, location, and mood swings, and Scott Aronow‘s scenic design calls to mind the warmth of an operetta. The stage is essentially split into two distinct, functional playing areas: on one side, Pop’s Soup House, a small Italian restaurant, and on the other a raised balcony that serves as the back of Janice’s house. It’s intimate, like a sprawling living room on Thanksgiving where everybody gossips, secrets are about to be spilled, and there is always the distant threat of someone throwing a fit.

Italian American Reconciliation blends eccentricity and sentiment like a well-written romcom, but the script feels a bit dated with its jokes and gender dynamics, and the characters function too much as 80s romantic archetypes. Think of it as Moonstruck‘s slightly unhinged cousin: less refined but undeniably full of heart.

photos by Scott Aronow

Italian American Reconciliation
The Flea Theatre, 41 White Street between Church and Broadway
ends on October 26, 2025
for tickets ($50), visit Ticket Tailor