After a successful Broadway run more than a decade ago, The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg has arrived at Hampstead Theatre. Greenberg’s compassionate and humorous portrait of a suburban New York Jewish family unfolds over two Christmas dinners, twenty years apart. We start in the Reagan years in the 1980s and move to the early 2000s under the younger Bush administration. We hardly notice the incongruity of a middle-class Jewish family celebrating Christmas —it’s just the backdrop for Greenberg’s deeper exploration of family, memory, and the way secrets linger across generations. Greenberg’s death a few months ago at the age of 67 hovers poignantly over this London transfer.
At the centre of the story is Julie, charmingly played by Jennifer Westfeldt, reprising her role from the original New York production. She’s demurely gracious and a little self-effacing, yet formidable. There’s something of the great screwball heroines about her—Carole Lombard with a touch of Goldie Hawn and Reese Witherspoon.
Her sister-in-law Faye, played with relish by Tracy-Ann Oberman, is Julie’s sharp-tongued foil – acerbic, disappointed, and hilarious. Oberman lands every line, whether she’s skewering her husband Mort (David Kennedy), her under-achieving daughter Shelley (Julia Kass), or just the general foolishness of the world. Sam Marks, as Jeff, the long-time friend who straddles the two generations, provides an easy warmth that helps tie the story together.
Greenberg’s dialogue captures that mix of quick witted and self-deprecating banter that defines a certain kind of Jewish family. There are some big plot turns—a surprise pregnancy, an AIDS-related tragedy—but the play never quite builds into something larger. Too much time is given to stories about dresses and jewellery—charming, perhaps, but a bit too light-weight. The evening is clever, touching, and beautifully acted, but the story’s heart is elusive and can’t quite find its emotional core.
Director Blanche McIntyre keeps the stage picture lively and the family tensions are clear and believable. The lighting and set design elegantly chart the move from suburban comfort to Manhattan sophistication—spaces that gleam on the surface but, like their inhabitants, are quietly fraying underneath.
The Assembled Parties is funny and finely observed—a play that flows with glib finesse, even if it doesn’t quite break your heart. It’s less a sweeping family saga than a portrait of time passing.
The Assembled Parties
By: Richard Greenberg
Directed by: Blanche McIntyre
Cast includes: Jennifer Westfeldt, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Sam Marks, David Kennedy, Daniel Abelson
Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes, including interval
Runs until: 22 November
Photo credit: Helen Murray