By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

IF YOU GO

What: Over the River and Through the Woods When: 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday through May 2 Where: Showboat Majestic, Public Landing Tickets: $15, students and seniors $14. 241-6550

When Showboat Majestic opens its 81st season of warm-weather theater Wednesday at the Public Landing, it will be with a comedy close to director Tim Perrino's heart.

Over the River and Through the Woods is a family comedy about single Italian-American Nick looking west from New Jersey to the life of endless possibilities he sees in Seattle. Except the last thing his old-country grandparents want is to lose him.

Nick's journey, like that of his grandfather as an immigrant to America generations earlier, Perrino says, "speaks profoundly to my family's experience."

Perrino's grandfather, Mariano, made four trips between Naples, Italy, and the United States beginning in 1898 in his struggle to give his children a better life. At one point, the naturalized American citizen was arrested by Italian authorities who wanted to draft him into World War I. The U.S. Embassy rescued him.

"He went back and forth. Worked and saved. Brought his two oldest boys to America, my uncles Pasquale and Guiseppe - Pat and Joe.

"He went back and when my grandmother refused to leave their chickens and goats, he told her he'd take the daughters - my aunts Maria (Mary), Domenica (Minnie) and Jeanette (Jake) - and leave her there. She relented."

The family settled in Walnut Hills, "with chickens in the back yard," where Perrino's father was born.

Over the River by Joe DiPietro (author of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change) doesn't have chickens, but it does have great affection for the intergenerational family.

Jeff DeMaria of Fort Thomas, a veteran of Showboat, Ensemble and Stage First, plays Nick.

Popular married actors Bill Hartnett and Eleanor Shepherd of Indian Hill play Nick's maternal grandparents; Ed Moroney of Finneytown and Gwen Peerless of Monfort Heights play his paternal grandparents. The lure they use to keep him at home is romance with the nice girl played by Michelle Miller of Clifton.