Hillary and Clinton

C

When Laurie Metcalf appeared in Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2 two years ago, she won a Tony and the play became a commercial success. Therefore, producers probably thought it would be a great idea to produce this 2016 play by Hnath with Ms. Metcalf playing Hillary and, to beef up box office appeal, another Tony winner, John Lithgow (The Changing Room, Sweet Smell of Success), as Bill Clinton. The result is a mixed bag. The play, which first appeared during the 2016 primaries when Hillary looked like a sure thing, resonates differently today. Billed on the marquee as “primarily a comedy,” it does offer more than a few laughs over the goings-on in Hillary’s hotel room just before and after the 2008 New Hampshire primary. The play opens with a woman named Hillary philosophizing about the infinite number of universes where different incarnations of people obtain different results. This frame enables the playwright to mix fact, supposition and outright fiction to tell a tale that might have taken place in some universe. Spoilers ahead. When Barack (Peter Francis James; The Lady from Dubuque) tries to make a deal for her to quit the race and join him as vice-president on the ticket, her campaign manager Mark (Zak Orth; Major Barbara, subUrbia) advises her to refuse. Against Mark’s advice, Hillary calls her husband, who had been banished from the campaign, and asks him to come to New Hampshire. When he arrives, they bicker over all the accumulated grievances in their marriage and the rivalry of their competing ambitions. Bill’s presence in New Hampshire affects the outcome and upsets her secret deal with Barack, who then cautions them about the threat of damaging information emerging about their charitable fundraising. That’s about it in a nutshell. I guess celebrities lose the right to protect their privacy, but I couldn’t see any value in Hnath presenting a fantasy version of events. The actors make no effort to imitate their real-life models, which is probably a plus. Director Joe Mantello (Three Tall Women, The Humans) keeps things moving briskly. The set by Chloe Lamford (1984) is downright ugly — a gray cube that slides forward and lights up along the edges. The only props are an office chair and leftover food debris on the floor. The costumes by Rita Ryack (Casa Valentina) emphasize the ordinariness of daily life when the world is not watching. As one would expect, both Ms. Metcalf and Mr. Lithgow are a pleasure to watch. Nevertheless, there seemed to be little point to the enterprise. Running time: 85 minutes; no intermission.