Comic story of dysfunctional family comes to Boca starting March 24

By Dale King

Marty’s Back in Town, playwright Norman Shabel’s comedic drama about the ups and downs of a dysfunctional family and their relationships with each other and with the “black sheep” who is returning home after 10 years, will be performed at The Studio at Mizner Park in Boca Raton March 24-April 2.

Shabel, whose well-received courtroom drama A Class Act, had a successful run in Boca Raton in 2022, admits to drawing on his own “true life” experiences to fashion this story.

“Marty’s really done things the family didn’t like over the years,” Shabel explained.  And now he thinks he’s dying so he arrives ‘home’ with his wife… and it’s how the family reacts.  That’s the fire under this play – his return.”

“Those things could have happened over many, many years, or many, many months, or many, many days,” Shabel continued.  “And what I’ve done is, I’ve compressed these characters – their actions and their issues, their attributes, their good things, their bad things, their hatreds, their fears – into an hour and a half or two hours, so the playgoer will know, this is the character, this is what he’s all about, this is his life.  And the difficult part, of course, is putting a lifetime into an hour and a half or two hours.  And I think that’s what I’ve done in Marty’s Back in Town!”

Shabel has tasked actor/director Seth Trucks with directing the production, and Trucks has convened a stellar cast to bring Marty and his family to life:

James A. Skiba will play Marty, Ben Prayz will play his brother Ronald, Francine Silvers will play his sister, Susan, and Christine Chavers will play the family matriarch.  Also cast also includes Leslie Kandel, Blaine DeBerry, Emma Mcavoy and Peter Galman, who will play the family patriarch, Sam.  Galman will also take on the role of assistant director for the production, along with Chris Cooper.  Harold Petion is the production’s stage manager.

Brooklyn-born, successful New Jersey class-action attorney turned author Norman Shabel has been driven to write ever since he can remember. By the time he was in his 20’s, he had authored several novels that ended up stuffed in drawers as he launched his legal career, married and had a family.

To date, Shabel has written seven plays and eight novels, some written in long-hand, hunched over his desk while waiting for a jury verdict to come in, and all dealing with either crime, relatable family dynamics or both.  Three of his plays have been produced Off-Broadway in New York, Philadelphia and in several theaters in South Florida.

The Studio at Mizner Park is located at 201 Plaza Real, in Boca Raton.

For more information about the show or to arrange to see the production, contact Carol Kassie at carol@carolkassie.com / 561-445-9244. Ticket prices range from $25 to $45. For tickets: https://tinyurl.com/28as53ypPerformances March 24 – April 2
Friday & Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday at 3 p.m.