by Kathaleen Roberts

The Gavones are an Italian family just trying to get through a funeral between embezzling, fighting and eating. "I would hesitate to call them dysfunctional because within their psychosis, they're functioning quite well," said James Cady,director of "The Gavones of Philadelphia," opening at the Adobe Theater on Friday, Aug. 26. Local playwright Joseph Sorrentino wrote the piece as a drama, then workshopped it in Chicago. After extensive rewriting, it turned into a comedy, Cady said.

"It's black comedy; it's situation comedy," he said. "Family loyalty is involved. Family disloyalty is involved. Bookies are involved. Pop's will is about to be read." In this "Moonstruck"-meets-"Prizzi's Honor" hybrid, a series of mistakes, errors and disasters propels the characters to flee. One character is fighting to free himself from debt; another wants to escape the neighborhood in which he robbed the bank next door.

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Source: http://www.abqjournal.com/