<div id="subtitle">Mike Burstyn brings mobster Meyer Lansky to life in the one-man show 'Lansky'</div><div><p>In the one-man show "Lansky," a subtly monstrous performance by Mike Burstyn brings Meyer Lansky to chilling life.</p><p>Lansky, who died in 1983 and was called "the reputed financial genius of the underworld" in his New York Times obituary, allegedly ran casinos in Cuba and Las Vegas with his friend, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. He controlled gambling, hotels, shipyards and other businesses in several cities.</p><p>Co-written by Richard Krevolin and actor/director Joseph Bologna, who also directed this production, the play opened Thursday at off-Broadway's St. Luke's Theatre. It's based on Robert Rockaway's book, "But He Was Good to His Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters."</p><p>The playwrights focus on Lansky's attempt, in his 60s, to emigrate from America to Israel and obtain citizenship there. He hopes to thus evade the FBI and ultimately be buried in Israel next to his beloved grandfather.</p><p>Waiting in Tel Aviv to celebrate news of his expected citizenship approval, Lansky recounts to the audience the good deeds — pro-American and pro-Israel — he claims to have performed. He confidently expects reciprocal favoritism from various top government figures, particularly Golda Meir.</p><p>Burstyn's air of bonhomie and jocularity barely masks the ruthless, volatile man beneath the charming surface. Wearing a genial, at times faintly maniacal grin, he chats about his life, starting with his early childhood in Poland where he lived with his parents and grandparents.</p><p>When his family came to America, some of his childhood pals in New York's Lower East Side included future mob leaders like Siegel and Charles "Lucky" Luciano.</p><p>Referring to himself as "an honest businessman who kept clean and accurate books," Lansky brags at one point that he never murdered anyone with his own two hands.</p><p>Burstyn quotes from Lansky's father and grandfather, giving voice to two touchstones in young Meyer's life who firmly rejected his choice to pursue "blood money."</p><p>Burstyn creates an intense, memorable portrait of a fascinating individual with no apparent moral compass. Lansky can claim he is above all a Jew and deserves to live out his life in Israel, but his early and willing embrace of a life of crime can't be absolved by late-stage piety.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=42044769&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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