Sopranos' Cast Members to Appear in Lamppost Reunion

What if Hoboken's most famous son, Frank Sinatra, had come back to town at the height of his fame for a reunion with guys he left behind in the singing group, Hoboken Four—how do you suppose that conversation would have gone? Hoboken-born playwright Louis LaRusso imagined such a scene in a play entitled Lamppost Reunion, which was produced on Broadway in 1975 and earned LaRusso a Tony nomination and rave reviews in the New York Times for his ear for realistic, if “raw,” dialogue.

A young Danny Aiello was one of the stars of the original Broadway run, so director Frank Licato says it's fitting that his son Ricky Aiello is joining two cast members of the HBO series, The Sopranos, Vincent Pastore and Robert Funaro, at a reading of the play staged by Hoboken's Mile Square Theatre at the Hoboken Historical Museum on Friday and Saturday, May 18th and 19th at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets cost $25, and proceeds will benefit both the Museum and Mile Square Theatre. Seating will be limited, so call the Museum for reservations at 201-656-2240.

The reading of this play complements the Museum's current exhibit, as the play is set in a gritty bar in the Mile Square City in the mid-'70s, some 30 years after Sinatra left his pals for the limelight. LaRusso revealed that he did research for his characters by interviewing actual members of the Hoboken Four, according to the oral history chapbook, The Simple Dialogue of My People, published last year as part of the ongoing series produced by the Hoboken Historical Museum and Friends of the Hoboken Public Library, which is funded in part by a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission.

Although the play's characters are loosely based on Sinatra and the Hoboken Four, Clive Barnes' 1975 review in the NewYork Times notes that the play explores the tensions between present differences and past memories that arise at any reunion of old friends whose lives have gone in different directions.

This reading is a reunion on several levels, according to director Licato. First, it reunites two Sopranos stars, Pastore, who portrayed Sal “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero, and Funaro, who has a recurring role as Eugene Pontecorvo. It also reunites the play with the son of one of one of LaRusso's favorite actors, Danny Aiello, who originated the part of “Biggie,” a bartender “who was nearly a big-time singer and is now softly embittered,” according to Barnes' 1975 review. Other actors include Tony Hoty, a veteran character actor with Broadway, television and film credits; and Matthew Dixon, an actor and Sundance filmmaker.

The chapbook also notes that LaRusso's career took off after the play's commercial and critical success. LaRusso went on to enjoy a long stint as one of Broadway's and Hollywood 's most in-demand dialogue doctors. He had a hand in rewriting the original Dreamgirls musical and the film Saturday Night Fever. He spent 12 years in Hollywood before returning to Hoboken and his mother's house on Willow Terrace, where he lived until his death in 2003.

Like The Sopranos, the play's dialogue and subject matter are aimed at mature audiences, so parental discretion is advised.