The subtitle of Unorganized Crime could almost be: There will be Italian Blood. The new drama by Kenny D’Aquila about a Mafia family in Dearborn, Michigan, is shot through with violence: three murders in 75 minutes. At the same time, the play is wildly funny in a profane, outrageous way. The resulting mixture is a cross between Grand Guignol and cable-tv sitcom.
The playwright plays Gino Sicuso, nebbishy second son of a big-time Mafia mobster (Carmen Argenziano) who has banished the boy to the sticks for his flawed character (inability to kill on demand). All Gino wants is a second chance in life, an opportunity to show the family that he’s now capable of pulling the trigger. He gets that chance when his older brother Sal (Chazz Palminteri) shows up unexpectedly and challenges his manhood, particularly where his wife Rosie (Elizabeth Rodriguez) is concerned. Rosie, who helps support her head-waiter husband by turning tricks, gets caught up in the sibling rivalry and must eventually decide whether slitting Gino’s throat would be a good career move. In a subplot, Rosie also contemplates snuffing Haakim (Jack Topalian), the Arab-American landlord she sleeps with from time to time, when she can’t pay the rent. Underlying all the mayhem and craziness is the play’s theme: an investigation of the moral code that members of the Mafia lived by. It may be a twisted code, but it demands conformity and obedience – just like any other organized religion.
Unorganized Crime could easily go off the rails, but its excellent cast, led by Rodriguez’s hilarious and fiery performance, keeps things together in accomplished fashion. Joel David’s lavish, Broadway-quality set and lighting, and David Fofi’s firm direction help make this one of the best-produced, small-theater plays in many a season.
