B-
This 20th-century midwestern Our Town wannabe by first-time playwright Bubba Weiler has arrived off Broadway after a Brooklyn production at the Space at Irondale, where it received a Critic’s Pick designation from the New York Times and an enthusiastic review in the Wall Street Journal. I therefore arrived at Studio Seaview with high expectations that I soon regretted. I might have had a more positive response had I approached it cold. Maggie (the always watchable Quincy Tyler Bernstine) is a recent widow whose husband Marv died under murky circumstances in which he may or may not have been a hero. The uncertainty freezes Maggie in her grief, preventing her from even planning a funeral, because she no longer feels confident that she knew him well enough to decide whether he even deserves a funeral. The play consists of seven scenes during which one of the other seven actors shares the stage with Maggie. A la Wilder, there is a narrator (Matthew Maher) who sets the scene and fills in information about the characters. The other characters are Wally (Will Dagger), Marv’s extremely dependent cousin; Joanie (Constance Schulman), a ditsy funeral director; Julie (Amelia Workman), Maggie’s longtime friend and Marv’s brother’s wife; Jeff (Danny McCarthy), Marv’s brother Jeff; Angela (Emily Davis), a woman from Maggie’s past that she has forgotten; and Ashley (Cricket Brown), Angela’s daughter. Each scene builds on the previous one, adding a bit of information to explain the circumstances of Marv’s death. There are a few satisfying red herrings along the way. The plot is interesting and well thought out. What frustrated me was that the play was good enough that I wished it had been better. Strangely, the play opens with the two weakest and least essential scenes so it took me a long time to become invested in the story. After what I thought was a natural place to end, there were two more scenes that I wasn’t sure added to the whole. I wish that a play doctor had been engaged to tighten the play up because at almost two hours I was getting restless (especially on the theater’s uncomfortable seats). Another problem was the casting of the important role of narrator; the present actor, the only one new to his role, flubbed several lines and had a distracting lisp. The comic tone of the scene with the funeral director seemed at odds with the rest of the play. Frank J. Oliva’s set is bare bones, with folding chairs and table and props rolled in as needed. In a direct steal from David Cromer’s Our Town, the curtain covering the back of the stage parts for the final scene and another realistic set rolls forward; the rewards are much less here. Avery Reed’s costumes are apt. Director Jack Serio’s pace during the first few scenes is so slack that it is difficult to build interest. All that being said, I am not sorry I saw the play. I just wish it had been polished further before it reached the stage. Running time: One hour, 50 minutes without intermission.
