The middle play in Jethro Compton’s ambitious trilogy set in 1920s Chicago is a straight gangster drama.
Its central figure is old Nick (surely the name is not a coincidence in the context of Lucifer). David Calvitto’s character spends a great deal of the play ineffectually denying that he is The Godfather after Al Capone has been caught and imprisoned.
Nick seems like a reasonably nice and well-grounded guy, still occupying shabby room 616 at the Lexington Hotel when he could lord it up in a suite. That might suit his gorgeous dame Suzie Preece’s Marlene rather better but she is very loyal.
As is so often the case in this genre, her fresh-faced cousin Michael played by Oliver Tilney happens to be a cop. To increase the incestuous intertwining, his father is a colleague and rival of Nick.
Much of the plotting is relatively standard until things turn nasty, at which point the drama becomes as tense as any movie based on the works of Mario Puzo.