Nantucket Sleigh Ride

C

Can the creative team that brought us House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation — playwright John Guare, director Jerry Zaks and Lincoln Center Theater — strike gold a third time? Judging from the new absurdist memory play, now at the Mitzi E. Newhouse, the answer is “No.” Despite the best efforts of a first-rate cast, an ingenious set, great costumes and smooth direction, this quirky play never really takes off. There are several amusing moments, but they don’t lead anywhere. The convoluted plot involves Edmund Gowery (John Larroquette; The Best Man, How To Succeed in Business without Really Trying), a playwright turned venture capitalist who is having an affair with his agent Gilbert’s  (Jordan Gelber; Sunday in the Park with George) wife Antonia (Tina Benko; The Crucible, Describe the Night). One day, his secretary (Stacey Sargeant; Wild Goose Dreams) allows entry to Lilac (Grace Rex; Life and Limb) and Poe (Adam Chanler Berat; Next to Normal, The Fortress of Solitude), a confrontational sister and brother bearing a book he autographed 35 years before on Nantucket. Their memories of that summer are blank and they demand that he tell them what occurred. It being August, his therapist Dr. Harbinger (Douglas Sills; The Scarlet Pimpernel, War Paint) is unavailable for advice. And so begins a flashback of a few days on the island that summer, where he meets the two annoying siblings whose parents are Schuyler (Sills again), a child psychoanalyst, and Elsie (Clea Alsip;  M. Butterfly, The Way We Get By), the daughter of a famous author of children’s books. He also meets McPhee (Will Swenson; Waitress, Jerry Springer: The Opera), who is either Elsie’s lover or her stalker. The absent Elsie has allegedly been traumatized by Gowery’s brusk refusal to come to the island the previous year to see an amateur production of his sole play, “The Internal Structure of Stars.” A running joke is that everyone he meets on Nantucket, including the police officer (Sargeant again) who accuses him of running a child pornography ring from the house he owns but has never visited, was involved in the production of Gowery’s play. Gowery is excited at the possibility of writing the screenplay for Roman Polanski’s remake of Hitchcock’s “Suspicion” starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. Or is it a Disney adaptation of Elsie’s father’s children’s books also to be directed by Polanski? A cryogenic Walt Disney (Sills again) makes a strong pitch to Poe and Lilac. Gowery’s #2 girlfriend Alice (Benko again) refuses him a crucial favor. Jorge Luis Borges (German Jaramillo; Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter) pops up now and then with a quotation for every occasion. Chaos ensues as the various plot strands bump against each other without satisfactory resolution. David Gallo’s (Jitney, The Drowsy Chaperone) three-tiered set is a treat and Emily Rebholz’s (Indecent, Dear Evan Hansen) costumes are a hoot. While the play is intermittently amusing, there is little point to it.  While I was grateful for the chance to see John Larroquette, Douglas Sills and Will Swenson onstage together, I left disappointed. Running time: one hour 50 minutes including intermission.

Gore Vidal's The Best Man ****

(Please click on the title to see the full review.)
Ah,  for the good old days before focus groups, 24-hour cable bloviators, nonstop polls and super-PACS. You can escape there for a few hours at the Schoenfeld Theatre, where this star-packed revival of Vidal's 1960 drama is playing. The theater is decorated with patriotic bunting, state delegation signs and black-and-white tv monitors and the sound design by John Gromada recreates the background noise of a lively convention. William Russell (John Larroquette), a principled, patrician, intellectual, womanizing, liberal candidate is competing with Joseph Cantwell (Eric McCormack), a younger, telegenic, unscrupulous, ambitious, straight-laced, populist conservative, for the endorsement of former president Arthur Hockstader (James Earl Jones). Cantwell is prepared to sabotage Russell's campaign by releasing a report on a nervous breakdown in his past. Dick Jensen (Michael McKean), Russell's campaign manager, turns up a witness, Sheldon Marcus (Jefferson Mays), to a potentially damaging episode in Cantwell's past. Russell must decide whether to violate his own principles by using this information to neutralize Cantwell's attack. Russell's estranged wife Alice (Candace Bergen), Cantwell's relentlessly ambitious southern belle wife Mabel (Kerry Butler) and Sue-Ellen Gamadge (Angela Lansbury), chair of the party's women's division, fulfill the traditional roles expected of the distaff side. The action progresses through three well-formed acts to a satisfying conclusion. The play is far less dated than I expected it to be. In a sense, only the forms have changed; politics is basically the same. It's a treat to see actors the caliber of Jones and Lansbury chew up the scenery. Larroquette is more effective than McCormack, although the latter improves as the play progresses. Bergen is to be commended for taking on an unglamorous role and playing it well. Butler and Mays are a bit over the top, in Mays' case delightfully so. Even the minor roles are well-cast. Derek McLane's sets, Ann Roth's costumes and Michael Wilson's direction are all admirable. All in all, it was an enjoyable evening. Running time: two hours, 40 minutes including two intermissions.