Finished: Conversations With My Father (Gardner) A good play, not what I expected, but still very good. I can see why it ran for over a year on Broadway! It begins in 1976 with a 40 year old Charlie walking into the lower Manhattan bar that his family has owned since his father immigrated  from Russia as a child. Charlie is with his own 20-something year old son who is excited to be going through some of his grandparents old "treasures". Charlie has recently sold the bar and he just wants to get out of there and away from the memories. Suddenly, we are transported back to 1936 where we meet Charlie's father, the 40-something Eddie Ross (formerly Itzik Goldberg, a Russian Jew who witnessed the brutal deaths of his mother and brother in Russia by Russian non-Jews, and the death of his father by the gangs of New York who didn't appreciate his being the only bar owner in New York who stuck to the prohibition laws.) Eddie has taken the name in honor of his favorite American boxer and his favorite American President (Roosevelt). He wants to remove his boys, 10 year old Joseph (formerly Jussel) and 2 year old Charlie (formerly Chaim) from publicly being identified as Jewish, while still privately sending them to Hebrew school. He doesn't want them to be persecuted in the U.S. Eddie's wife, Gusta, and a handful of bar regulars make up the cast as Eddie continually reinvents his bar trying to make it the best thing going. One patron and longtime friend, Anton, an old Russian actor, lives upstairs and comes down every day to read the Jewish news to his friends. He's a great influence on young Joey. There is some great dialogue in the play. Eddie is very vocal about his opinions and has long conversations with 2 year old Charlie because Charlie refuses to speak. Joey tells him not to worry, that Charlie is taking it all in. Sure enough, Charlie does grow up to be extremely literate and becomes a best-selling author. Flash to 1944 and Joey is now 17 going on 18 and Charlie is 10. Joey has become a great young boxer who has been undefeated in over 20 bouts. His bout that night is finally going to be broadcast over the radio, which is a huge deal. The same crowd gathers around the radio to listen in the bar that night. Before going to warm up, though, Anton has come down with his daily paper and exclaims that he can't believe that hundreds of thousands of Jews are being put to their deaths in the Nazi camps and it's buried on page twelve of the New York newspaper. Eddie defends the paper saying it's probably all just propaganda...of course they aren't killing all those Jews. However Joey takes it all in and it really bothers him. As the radio begins to announce his bout that night, the announcers says that Joey is a no show! Eddie is shocked and worried at the same time. Joey comes bounding into the bar to his father's relief, only to tell him that he's decided to sign up for the Navy to go and do his part to fight the Jew-killers. Of course, you can guess that only days before the war ends, Joey is killed on his ship as he steadfastly maintains his gunnery position against the suicide bombing Japanese. The family is devastated, non more so than 10 year old Charlie who idolized Joey. It's 20 more years until we see Eddie and Charlie again and that's because Eddie has had a heart attack and Charlie rushes home to see him. I can't really explain all the nuances of the different conversations that Eddie has with his sons over the years and with Anton, his good friend, but all the scenes are either heartbreaking or humorous or both. Also, the entire time that the story goes back in time, the current 40 year old Charlie is there in the background making little comments to different characters...not obnoxiously so, but poignantly so. I think it was probably a really fine play to see live. So finally, we are brought back to 1976 and we finally understand why Charlie wants to sell the bar and his bad memories along with it. So glad I read this play.  I'm pretty sure I initially bought it because I remember my brother maybe saying he did a monologue from it for an audition once? Anyway, I'm glad to have it floating around in my brain now. :-)