The Last Night of Ballyhoo

"To all appearances, The Last Night of Ballyhoo declares itself to be nothing more than an old-fashioned, family-centered, living-room comedy. The time is 1939, when the most important thing in young Lala Levy's life is the Atlanta premier of Gone With the Wind. More urgent to her widowed mother, Boo, is the question of who will be Lala's date for the last night of Ballyhoo, the formal dance that crowns the party season for Atlanta's Jewish Society... A darker tone emerges though. Without ever departing from its basic structure as a rich, often hilarious romantic comedy, Ballyhoo explores the previously unexplored territory of Southern anti-Semitism and how Jews turn it against each other and themselves... Part of the triumph of The Last Night of Ballyhoo is that Uhry allows ethical dilemmas and class tensions to arise without turning his characters into stick figures or the drama into a predetermined 'issue' play. Also remarkable is Uhry's gift for creating a stage full of characters so rich they all seem like leading roles." -- from dust jacket.