By Susan Granger

Comediennes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are terrific together. They banter and they bubble. Problem is: in “Sisters,” their exuberance is not supported by TV’s “Saturday Night Live” veteran Paula Pell’s flaccid script, so there’s little that director Jason Moore (“Pitch Perfect”) can do to spark up their vulgar skirmishes.

Although Kate (Tina Fey) and Maura (Amy Poehler) Ellis are siblings, they’re polar opposites in personality. Rebellious, immature Kate is a beautician, unable to hold down a job or provide stability for her estranged teenage daughter, Hayley (Madison Davenport). Recently divorced Maura is a responsible nurse and earnestly relentless do-gooder.

When their parents (Dianne Wiest, James Brolin) decide to sell their Orlando home and move into a condo in a retirement community, Kate and Maura are summoned to Florida to clean up their cluttered childhood bedroom. When they arrive, they discover that there’s a SOLD sign out-front.

While sorting through their high-school journals, they nostalgically recall an “Ellis Island” party they once threw. Determined to recreate it, they invite new acquaintances, like the brawny handyman neighbor, James (Ike Barinholtz), and a young Korean manicurist, Hae-Won (Greta Lee), along with old classmates (Rachel Dratch, Bobby Moynihan, Kate McKinnon, Samantha Bee, Matt Oberg and John Leguizamo).

By James Lomuscio

The book provides an inside look into the life of the man who ran the Playhouse from 1941 to 1957. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Contributed photo

For Jack Macauley, it was happenstance, if not fate, when in 2012 he stumbled on to a box in a closet in his late parents’ home. It turned out to be a treasure chest of sorts, providing a unique window into the Westport Country Playhouse’s past—and the town’s overall arts history.

The box he explored as he cleaned out his parents’ residence at Meadow Ridge in Redding teemed with theater memorabilia. It had belonged to Macauley’s mother, and all of it revolved around her favorite uncle—Broadway producer John C. “Jack” Wilson.

Wilson, who died in 1961 at the age of 62, had produced 45 shows on the Great White Way, including “Kiss Me Kate” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” A resident of Southport, he also served as managing partner for the Westport Country Playhouse from 1941 to 1957, coming aboard 10 years after it was founded.

His influence on the theater world, actors and playwrights (at age 26 he and playwright Noel Coward became lovers) is retold in “Noel, Tallulah, Cole, and Me: A Memoir of Broadway’s Golden Age.”

Two members of the cast who played boyfriend and girlfriend tonight in the Westport Country Playhouse script in hand reading performance of “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” are actually married to each other in real life. Married in June, Bethany Jillard and husband Aaron Krohn celebrate the success of tonight’s performance.  (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The cast of tonight’s Westport Country Playhouse Script in Hand reading of “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” pose during a rehearsal with director Anne Keefe, Playhouse associate artist and curator of the playreading series. Winner of the 1997 Tony Award for Best Play, it is written by Alfred Uhry, author of “Driving Miss Daisy.”  Pictured (l-r, seated) are Cheryl Stern, Lenny Wolpe, Stephanie Zimbalist; (l-r, standing) Anne Keefe (director), Jonathan Randell Silver, Dana Steingold, Martha Stout (stage directions), Bethany Jillard and Aaron Krohn. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com