Anne Frank is alive and well and living in Paris when first we meet her in Anne, A New Play, Nick Blaemire’s trimmed-down adaptation of a 2014 Dutch-language hit whose powerful U.S. Premiere more than merits a visit to the Museum Of Tolerance.

Mad as it may seem to imagine Anne’s survival in post-WWII France, there is method to playwrights Jessica Durlacher and Leon de Winter’s madness, though far be it from this reviewer to reveal what that is.

Suffice it to say that seeing a radiant 20something Anne (Ava Lalezarzadeh) bonding over glasses of red wine with a handsome young Publisher (Timothy P. Brown) not only gives us a glimpse of the happy ending that might have been, it allows Anne to share with a sympathetic listener the “letters” she wrote to an imaginary friend in an effort to keep herself sane in a world gone crazy.

Headlines announcing Hitler’s rise to power take us back to Amsterdam circa 1942, where a series of new laws (“Jews may not go to theaters or cinemas. Jews may not use swimming pools.”) set the scene for the horrors to come.

Fortunately for Anne’s family, Dutch couple Jan and Miep Gies (Tony DeCarlo and Mary Gordon Murray) are willing to help the Franks stay hidden in the annex of offices that had previously belonged to patriarch Otto (Rob Brownstein).

Eight German Jews end up sharing these tight quarters: Anne, Otto, her mother Edith (Andrea Gwynnel), her older sister Margot (Marnina Schon), Otto’s business partner Hermann Van Pels (Aylam Orian), his wife Auguste (Murray) and their teenage son Peter (Kevin Matsumoto), and dentist Fritz Pfeffer (De Carlo).

Though Anne’s story has been told on stage before (Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s 1955 script has been a regional, school, and community theater staple for over six decades), Blaemire’s adaptation not only presents Anne’s diary in a startlingly new framework that ends up paying off big-time, it places its focus squarely on the girl whose diary has sold over thirty million copies worldwide.

Supporting characters still get their individual storylines (the selling of Mrs. Van Pels’ fur coat is one of them), but we’re never far from Anne as she clings to her father, bickers with her mother, rages against the injustice of having to share her room with Pfeffer, and finds herself in the throes of first love, teen hormones stimulated by an equally horny Peter.

Most importantly, Anne, A New Play pays tribute to the strength and resilience of the human spirit in the toughest of times.

Blaemire deserves major props for compacting a two-and-a-half-hour Dutch-language play (translated into English by Susan Massotty) into just under eighty-five minutes while inserting refreshing bits of humor along the way.

Eschewing the original European production’s massive, realistic sets, scenic designer Desma Murphy keeps things simple, her movable set pieces backed by Derek Christiansen’s scene-setting projections, director Eve Brandstein making effective use of a limited playing area while eliciting powerful performances from all concerned.

UCLA junior Lalezarzadeh is luminous perfection as Anne, whom we get to see as both petulant teen and confident young adult, and rising musical theater performer Matsumoto aces a straight dramatic role with charisma and charm.

Adult characters are in the accomplished hands of stage vets Brownstein, Murray, Gwynnel, and Orian.

Last but not least, Schon makes an indelible impression as forgotten older sister Margot, a young woman with her own set of hopes and dreams, and a terrific Brown reminds us of the refuge Paris provided African-Americans in the pre-civil rights era.

Ian James’ dramatic lighting, Christiansen’s gut-punching sound design, and Florence Kemper Bunzel’s fine 1940s costumes merit mention as well.

Anne, A New Play is produced by Suzi Dietz and presented by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Ernest Mcdaniel is production stage manager and Dylan Elhai is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Amy Lieberman.

Rising worldwide antisemitism gives Anne Frank’s story a “now more than ever” relevance. But it’s not just relevance that makes the latest look at her life a must-see. The Diary Of Anne Frank has rarely if ever been more powerfully retold than it is in Anne, A New Play.

Museum of Tolerance, 9786 W Pico Blvd., Los Angeles.
www.museumoftolerance.com

–Steven Stanley
June 16, 2019
Photos: Michael Lamont

Tags: Anne Frank, Jessica Durlacher, Leon de Winter, Los Angeles Theater Review, Museum Of Tolerance, Nick Blaemire