True West

C-

Regular readers of this blog may recall that, over the years, the plays of Sam Shepard have held little appeal for me. For what ever reason, I seem to have little affinity for his sensibility. That being said, I must admit that Shepard often writes roles that are absolute catnip for actors. Such is the case with this play. Since it premiered in 1980, the roles of brothers Lee and Austin have been filled by high-powered actors like Tommy Lee Jones and Peter Boyle, Gary Sinise and John Malkovich, Bob Hoskins and Anthony Sher, and, in the much-praised 2000 Circle in the Square revival, Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Reilly, who alternated roles. The current Roundabout production stars Ethan Hawke (Macbeth, The Coast of Utopia, “Boyhood”) as the charismatic rebel and sometime burglar Lee and Paul Dano (A Free Man of Color. “Love and Mercy”) as his younger brother, the buttoned-up married screenwriter Austin. As a fan of Hawke’s film career, I was driven by curiosity to see him despite my usual misgivings about Shepard. Hawke does not disappoint; his performance is high-energy and, at times, over the top. Dano, in the less showy role, comes into his own during the second act. When the play opens, Lee has turned up at his mother’s home in Southern California to find her away on vacation in Alaska and his brother Austin, whom he has not seen in five years, house-sitting for her. Austin has been struggling to close a film deal with producer Saul Kimmer (Gary Wilmes; If I Forget, Chinglish). When Lee butts into their meeting, he manages to talk Kimmer into a game of golf that leads to Kimmer’s decision to produce a Western based on Lee’s idea instead of Austin’s script. After a slow, mostly uneventful first act, mayhem ensues after intermission. There are some very funny scenes, many of which involve skillfully executed physical humor. The brothers reverse roles to an extent. A disillusioned Lee now finds Austin’s carefree life appealing. Their mother (Marylouise Burke (Fish in the Dark, Fuddy Mears), wasted in an underwritten role) arrives home unexpectedly to find a scene of utter chaos. The play ends on an ambiguous note. James Macdonald’s (The Children, Cloud Nine) direction is fine in many details but does not overcome the slow pace of the first act. Mimi Lien’s (The Lifespan of a Fact, Fairview) set recreates a kitchen and breakfast room befitting a middle-aged suburban lady. In what seems to have become a scenic cliche this season, the stage has an illuminated frame that lights up very brightly between scenes. Kaye Voyce’s (Significant Other, The Nap) costumes suit their characters well. While the play had its moments, it ultimately did not seem to have much point, at least to me. Perhaps I have OD’ed on dysfunctional families. Running time: two hours 15 minutes including intermission.

The Nap

D

Since I thoroughly enjoyed Richard Bean’s hilarious One Man, Two Guvnors, I was looking forward to this play at Manhattan Theatre Club even though I was unfamiliar with and uninterested in its focus — snooker, a variety of billiards popular in England. Allegedly a comedy-thriller, it comes up short on both laughs and thrills. Dylan Spokes (Ben Schnetzer; Sticks and Bones) is a working-class bloke from Sheffield who has a chance to win the World Championship tournament which is conveniently being held in his home town. Bobby Spokes (John Ellison Conlee; Murder Ballad, The Madrid) is his father, an ex-con drug dealer who has trouble with math and movie titles. Dylan is alienated from his mother Stella (Johanna Day; Sweat, Proof), a grifter who is currently selling fake handicap parking permits. The shady Waxy Bush (Alexandra Billings), Dylan’s sponsor and Stella’s lover before her gender change, rivals Mrs. Malaprop with her fractured vocabulary.  Tony DanLino (Max Gordon Moore; Saint Joan, Describe the Night) is Dylan’s flashy manager with a taste for pastel suits. Danny Killeen (Thomas Jay Ryan; The Crucible, 10 out of 12) is Stella’s smelly current boyfriend. Shortly before the tournament, Dylan is visited by Mohammad Butt (Bhavesh Patel; Present Laughter, Indian Ink), an official with the snooker authority, and Eleanor Lavery (Heather Lind; Incognito, Of Good Stock), an attractive police officer, who warn him about suspicious betting activity. Subsequently, Dylan must face a painful choice between throwing a game or jeopardizing the life of a loved one. This setup takes up the very long first act, which ends on a jarring note. The second and livelier act has many reveals and not one but two scenes of snooker with Dylan against Abdul Fattah and Baghawi Quereshi (both played by real-life champion Ahmed Aly Elsayed). An overhead view of the snooker play is projected on a large screen. The author has allegedly written two endings, depending on who wins. On the night I attended, Dylan won. The characters are little more than one-note tics and their interactions just aren’t that funny. The romantic subplot is half-hearted. At no point does the play even remotely approach the inspired slapstick farce of Bean’s earlier play. The direction by Daniel Sullivan (The Little Foxes, Good People) seemed a bit listless. David Rockwell’s (She Loves Me, Lobby Hero) set is a transforming wonder and Kaye Voyce’s (After the Blast, Mary Page Marlowe) costumes go a long way to defining the characters. Once again MTC has lavished first-rate production values on second-rate material. I was very disappointed. Running time: two hours 15 minutes including intermission.

Mary Page Marlowe

C-

After the glowing reviews the Steppenwolf premiere of Tracy Letts’ play received two years ago, I arrived at Second Stage’s Terry Kiser Theater expecting an absorbing evening. Alas, something essential seems to have been lost en route from Chicago, because this production, directed by Lila Neugebauer (The Wolves), left me wondering what the fuss was about. The play is built around two gimmicks: the title character is played by six actors (and a doll) and the 11 scenes from her life are presented out of sequence. The six who play Mary Page, in ascending chronological order, are Mia Sinclair Jenness (Matllda), Emma Geer (How To Transcend a Happy Marriage), Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”), Susan Pourfar (Mary Jane), Kellie Overbey (The Coast of Utopia) and Blair Brown (The Parisian Woman). Her parents are played by Nick Dillenburg (The Real Thing) and Grace Gummer (Arcadia) and her children by Kayli Carter and Ryan Foust (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Audrey Corsa and Tess Frazer (This Property Is Condemned) play her high school friends. David Aaron Baker (Oblivion Postponed) and Brian Kerwin (August: Osage County) are two of her husbands and Gary Wilmes (Chinglish) is her amorous boss. Marcia DeBonis (Small Mouth Sounds) is her shrink, Maria Elena Ramirez (Fish in the Dark) is her nurse and Elliot Villar (War Horse) is her dry cleaner. The play begins with a scene in which she is 40 and moves backward and forward almost randomly as far back as her infancy and up to her final months. Unfortunately, dividing her character’s scenes among six actors does not make her life story six times as interesting. Nor do the six actors create a convincing unity, at least not for me. Instead, they seem motivated to make the most of their relatively brief stage time. Subordinating their performance to a larger picture does not seem to be a priority. Perhaps this shortcoming will be overcoming during previews. The fact that three of the Mary Pages look roughly the same age made it difficult at times to place scenes in the correct sequence. A few of the scenes rise above the deliberate banality of the others. At times I thought I was watching a piece commissioned to provide as many roles as possible for the members of a repertory company. It was only 85 minutes long, but it seemed longer. When it was finally over, I was left scratching my head trying to figure out what made the Chicago production a hit, while this one, to me at least, is a miss. Perhaps it was Anna D. Shapiro’s direction or Carrie Coon’s acting that made the difference. In any case, the magic is missing. Kaye Voyce’s (Shining City) costumes are apt but Laura Jellinek’s (Marvin’s Room) sleek, curvy bilevel set seems somehow inapropos. The best I can say is that I am happy so many actors are employed thanks to this production. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.

queens

C+

This new drama by Martyna Majok (Ironbound) at LCT3’s Claire Tow Theater takes us to a basement in Queens where several immigrant women are living in a crowded illegal apartment. Most of them are from Eastern Europe, but one is from Honduras and another from Afghanistan. Most of the play is set in the basement in 2001, 2005 and 2017, but there are also scenes in Ukraine, Honduras and Georgia (the state, not the country). The jumping back and forth between years and places is occasionally confusing. Renia (a powerful Ana Reeder; The Big Knife), who we see rise from tenant to building owner, has left her young daughter behind and lives with that guilt. Inna (Sarah Tolan-Mee) is a young immigrant who suspects Renia might be her mother. Pelagiya (Jessica Love; Aubergine, The River), Aamani (Nadine Malouf; The Who and the What) and Isabella (Nicole Villamil) are three colorful residents who, unfortunately, disappear after Act One. Agata (Zuzanna Szadkowski) and Lera (Andrea Syglowski) have smaller but still important roles. Three of the actors (Mss. Love, Malouf and Villamil) also have a second role. The playwright captures the texture of life in the ad-hoc community formed by the women in the basement and offers some insight on what brought them there and what their hopes are. As a collection of character studies, the play succeeds, but as a coherent narrative, it needs work. There seems to be a trend this year to rush plays to production with really major revisions being made during previews. The set by Laura Jellinek seems too spacious for a basement apartment, but features a ceiling that lowers oppressively. Kaye Voyce’s costumes help define the characters. Danya Taymor has not been entirely successful in keeping the audience aware of when each scene takes place. Despite its flaws, the play offers a welcome glimpse at a group that has too often been overlooked. Running time: two hours 45 minutes including two intermissions.

Office Hour

D

Since there’s a warning sign at the theater entrance, it’s no spoiler to advise you that there are gunshots in Julia Cho’s (Aubergine) new play at the Public Theater. The playwright takes the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech as her inspiration and turns it into what is basically a set of variations on gun violence for no good reason that I could find. The English department at an unnamed university does not know how to deal with Dennis (Ki Hong Lee), a troubled Korean-American writing student who hides behind sunglasses and a hoodie, never speaks and whose writings are so violently perverse that the other students are afraid to come to class. In the first scene we meet three instructors — David (Greg Keller; Animal, Belleville), who flunked Dennis and is convinced that Dennis is responsible for anonymous negative reviews against him; Genevieve (Adeola Role; Eclipsed), a ringer for Nikki Giovanni who warned against the real-life shooter-to-be and threatened to resign if he were not removed from her class; and Gina (Sue Jean Kim; Aubergine, The End of Longing), his new instructor, who David and Genevieve think might be able to draw Dennis out and get him to seek help because of their shared Asian-American background. The bulk of the play consists of Dennis’s visit to Gina’s office hour, seen in several versions, all of which end badly, with an escalating level of violence. If the playwright’s intention was to show how easily we become desensitized to repetitive violence, she did succeed at that. Unfortunately I thought the main effect of the play was to trivialize an important topic. The actors are fine, although Ki Hong Lee does not fit the description of Dennis as extremely unattractive. Takeshi Kata’s (The Profane) office set has the right look and mysteriously emerges from the dark, no doubt a very expensive effect. Kaye Voyce’s (After the Blast) costumes befit the characters well. Bray Poor’s sound design is alarmingly effective. Neel Keller (Forever) directed. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Harry Clarke

C+

Vineyard Theatre opens its 35th season with the world premiere of this solo play by David Cale. Billy Crudup (No Man’s Land, Arcadia, The Pillowman) plays Philip Brugglestein of South Bend, Indiana, who, since the age of eight, has taken refuge from bullies including his father by assuming the alternate persona of an Englishman, accent and all. When his father dies under questionable circumstances, he sells the family home and moves to New York to start a new life as an Englishman. One day when he is in his thirties, he decides to follow a man he chooses at random. Crudup also portrays the man, his mother, his sister and a few other characters. It’s an interesting idea, but Cale doesn’t handle the story particularly well. A few salacious scenes are thrown in just to spice things up, even though they have little bearing on the main plot. The saving grace, to the extent there is one, is Mr. Crudup’s performance. He is good with accents and even gets to sing a little. I’m not sure whether director Leigh Silverman (Chinglish, Sweet Charity) could have done anything more to hide the weaknesses in the script. The simple set by Alexander Dodge (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) features a wooden chair and side table on a wooden deck with a background brightly lit by Alan C. Edwards. Kaye Voyce’s costume does not call attention to itself. To me, the play came across as a pale, rather clumsy imitation of Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” Running time: one hour 20 minutes; no interimssion.

After the Blast

C+

This new play by Zoe Kazan (We Live Here) at LCT3’s Claire Tow Theater is, as its title suggests, set after a thermonuclear apocalypse that has driven a few of the best and brightest survivors underground where they live in a tightly controlled community devoted to preserving a remnant of humanity and working toward healing the surface of the planet for an eventual return. Their difficult lives are eased by vaping THC or ‘sim’-ing,  i.e., enjoying simulations of former pleasures via chips implanted in their brains. Oliver (William Jackson Harper; Placebo), an important scientist, and his wife Anna (Cristin Milioti; Once) have been turned down four times for permission to have a baby because Anna could not pass the Mental Health Evaluation (MHE) due to her depression. Oliver brings home a helper robot, allegedly for Anna to train to help blind children, and, by her good works, raise her score on the MHE. She at first resists, but then gives in. She names the robot Arthur and grows quite attached to him. It’s easy to see why; he’s a charmer. Oliver and Anna have friends Carrie (Eboni Booth; Fulfillment Center) and Patrick (Ben Horner; Fucking A), who don’t get much chance to make an impression. David Pegram, Will Connolly and Teresa Yenque also have small roles. Oliver’s attempts to do right by his wife backfire. Almost every scene runs on too long, particularly in the first act. The play eventually just runs out of steam and ends rather abruptly which is a shame because it contains much of interest. The premise is fascinating, the cast is appealing, the set by Daniel Zimmerman (Suicide, Inc.) is both functional and attractive and the costumes by Kaye Voyce (4000 Miles, Luce) are subtly futuristic. I could not find a credit for the robot operator which seems an unfortunate omission. Director Lila Neugebauer (The Wolves, The Antipodes), who seems to work best with ensembles, doesn’t seem at the top of her form here. Running time: two hours 30 minutes including intermission.

This Day Forward *** B-

It’s good to have another Nicky Silver play onstage at the Vineyard Theatre, which has nurtured his work for over 20 years. Few playwrights can spin hilarity out of tragic circumstances as well as Silver. Perhaps his most popular play is The Lyons, with its deeply dysfunctional Jewish family that included an overbearing mother (a role Linda Lavin was born to play), a tyrannical father, a conflicted gay son and a less-than-appreciated daughter. If you enjoyed The Lyons, you will feel right at home here. The first act, set in 1958 in a room at the St. Regis, features a bridal couple whose wedding night is thrown into disarray by the revelation of a secret. In the second act, we learn how the consequences of that night have played out 46 years later. The dialog is often brutally funny. To say more would be to reveal too much. The entire production is topnotch. The cast of six (Andrew Burnap, Michael Crane, Holley Fain, Francesca Faridany, June Gable and Joe Tippett), some doubling roles, are all superb. The sets for both acts, by Allen Moyer, are perfection. Kaye Voyce’s costumes suit their characters well. J. David Brimmer’s  fight direction is worthy of note. Longtime Silver collaborator Mark Brokaw directs with a sure hand. With Silver, the style sometimes threatens to overwhelm the substance, but that is a flaw I can accept. Running time: 2 hours, including intermission.

Indian Summer **

Gregory S. Moss’s new play at Playwrights Horizons has a lot going for it -- three appealing young actors — Owen Campbell, Elise Kibler and Joe Tippett — and a first-rate production with an attractive set design by Dane Laffrey featuring an inviting beach, apt costumes by Kaye Voyce, great lighting by Eric Southern and smooth direction by Carolyn Cantor. There’s a fourth actor, Jonathan Hadary, whom I usually find annoying, but in this case appropriately so, because his character is also annoying. Daniel (Campbell) is an awkward scrawny 16-year-old whose mother has dumped him for an indefinite period on his step-grandfather George (Hadary) a recently widowed eccentric, who lives in a shack in a small Rhode Island beach town. On the beach, Daniel meets Izzy, a scrappy, sexy townie. It is obvious that their initial hostility will soon change. Izzy’s boyfriend Jeremy, 10 years her senior, is a martial arts master who has developed his own private philosophy. Fortunately, Jeremy is played by Tippett (Familiar), who brings humanity to a cartoonish role. As Izzy, the stunningly gorgeous Kibler knows how to hold our attention even as the lines she must spout become increasingly implausible. I wish that the actors had not been forced to struggle with a Rhode Island accent. What starts as a simple summer idyll goes seriously off course in the second act with a bizarre scene between George and Izzy. George’s hijacking of the play’s ending is the final misstep that wiped out my early good feelings. The mostly-subscriber audience, probably relieved at not having to confront anything too edgy, loved it. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City **

If you are not offended by the idea of a black comedy with cancer jokes, raunchy language and sexual situations set in a hospital room with two cancer patients lying silently in their beds, you are in for some very funny moments during this MCC production at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. You may feel guilty for laughing at times, but laugh you will. Good taste is not on the agenda. Karla (Beth Behrs of “2 Broke Girls” in a promising debut), a struggling comedienne with a potty mouth, tries out new comedy bits on her sleeping mother Marcie (the ever-watchable Lisa Emery). Don (a fine Eric Lochtefeld), a rumpled middle-aged guy dealing with a messy divorce and an unruly son, is visiting his mother Geena (Jacqueline Sydney) who lies in bed with a shaved head and has at most a handful of lines. Don and Karla get off on the wrong foot, but gradually share confidences and grow closer. There are several effective set pieces, either comedic or dramatic, with dry stretches in between. Too often getting an easy laugh trumps plausibility. Even a hilarious sex scene milks laughs for too long. The ending is weak. Nevertheless, the dialogue is snappy, the acting is fine and the attempt by playwright Halley Feiffer (I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard) to try something different is admirable. The hospital room set design by Lauren Helpern looks extremely authentic and the costumes by Kaye Voyce help define the characters. Trip Cullman’s direction is assured. Those not turned off by the play’s premise are likely to enjoy themselves for most of the time. Running time: 90 minutes.

Signature Plays **

On paper it must have seemed like a good idea to present a triple bill of revived short works by playwrights who were in Signature Theatre’s Legacy program. For someone like me who has a limited tolerance for absurdist theater, the results were not gratifying. Yesterday’s avant garde often seems quaint or just annoying today. 

Edward Albee’s “The Sandbox” at least offered a bit of drollery and a chance to see three fine actors — Alison Fraser, Frank Wood and Phyllis Somerville as Mommy, Daddy and Grandma, respectively— and hunky Ryan-James Hatanaka as The Young Man. Melody Giron played the cello. 

Maria Irene Fornes’s “Drowning” is a strange tale of unrequited love in which the three characters — Pea (Mikeah Ernest Jennings), Roe (Sahr Ngaujah) and Stephen (Wood again) — are dressed like humans but inexplicably wear grotesque masks that make them look more like sea lions. 

The longest and most complex work is Adrienne Kennedy’s “Funnyhouse of a Negro,” a surrealistic look at racial identity and racism through the mind of Sarah (Crystal Dickinson), a mixed-race graduate student on the Upper West Side. Except for her landlady (Fraser) and her boyfriend (Nicholas Bruder), all the characters represent aspects of Sarah’s inner conflict. They include Queen Victoria Regina (April Matthis), the Duchess of Hapsburg (January LaVoy), Patrice Lumumba (Ngaujah), Jesus (Jennings), and Sarah’s mother (Pia Glenn.) The short scenes are punctuated by blackouts. Along about the tenth one, I began praying that the next would be the last. While I can appreciate the impact the play must have had when new, it just didn’t work for me now.

The production values are first-rate with sets by Mimi Lien, costumes by Kaye Voyce and lighting by Mark Barton. Lila Neugebauer directed. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes including two intermissions.

SIgnificant Other ***

After the success of his play “Bad Jews," Joshua Harmon is back at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre with a new comedy-drama about Jordan Berman (Gideon Glick, in a breakout performance), a depressive 29-year-old gay New Yorker, and his three gal pals — Kiki (the hilarious Sas Goldberg), Vanessa (Carra Patterson) and Laura (the wonderful Lindsay Mendez). The play might have been called “Three Weddings and a Meltdown.” As his three friends find husbands and have less time for him, Jordan feels the deepening pain of not having his own significant other and the growing fear that he never will. John Behlmann and Luke Smith play the three husbands as well as three men that Jordan fails to connect with. Finally, there is the superb Barbara Barrie as Jordan’s grandmother, who has outlived her friends and whose mind may be slipping. I found the play irritating and moving in almost equal measure — irritating in that it too often goes for the easy laugh and moving in its wrenching portrayal of loneliness. I thought that at times the playwright was trying too hard to entertain, but the audience, at least 30 years younger than the usual subscription profile, seemed to be loving it, greeting every line, funny or not, with nervous laughter. It’s one of the rare plays where the second act is better than the first, with two stunning monologues for Jordan. The high quality of the acting elevated the material. Mark Wendland’s set impressed me as unnecessarily complicated and not very attractive. Kaye Voyce’s costumes were excellent. Trip Cullman’s direction was a bit overheated for my taste. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes, including intermission.

The Mystery of Love and Sex ***

About an hour into the first act of Bathsheba Doran’s new play at LCT’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater, I began to wonder whether the playwright suffered from AD/HD. Roughly every 10 minutes, a new plot line arrived, seemingly out of left field. By the end of this overstuffed dramedy, I felt like a guest at a dinner party where too many courses were served. Fortunately, we have four fine actors — Tony Shalhoub, Diane Lane, Gayle Rankin and Mamoudou Athie — onstage to guide us through the many twists and turns. Howard (Shalhoub) is a successful Jewish author of mysteries. Lucinda (Lane) is a southern belle who met him at Yale, converted to Judaism and married him. Charlotte (Rankin) is their neurotic daughter who turned down Yale to attend a Southern college with Jonny (Athie), her friend since childhood. Charlotte and Jonny may or may not be falling in love. Howard is opposed, but alleges that it is not because Jonny is black. Among the semi-digested themes that are hurled at us like pitches from a batting machine are conscious and unconscious racism, sexism and homophobia; the angst of confused sexual identity, the self-centeredness of writers, Jewish-Black relations, intermarriage, same-sex marriage, strained marriage, the tricky relationships between parent and child, the porous border between friendship and love, the chances for a fresh start. Lest our interest lag, the author throws in a little semi-gratuitous nudity — twice. Andrew Lieberman’s simple set has a wall of curtains at the back that are tugged this way and that from time to time. The actors have to shlep a lot of furniture between scenes. The overlong first act had a few false endings that were greeted by applause because the audience thought the act was over. Kaye Voyce’s costumes are fine. The ubiquitous Sam Gold directed. It is far from a good play, but nonetheless an entertaining one, thanks largely to the appealing cast and several comic moments. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes including intermission.

Casa Valentina (revisited) ***

When the opportunity to attend opening night arose unexpectedly, I decided to pay a return visit to see how the play had changed since I saw an early preview 2 1/2 weeks ago. Here's what I had to say the first time around:

For Harvey Fierstein to have three plays running on Broadway simultaneously is quite an achievement, but in this instance the third time is not a charm. His first non-musical (I dare not say "straight" play) in decades, now in previews at Manhattan Theatre Club, has a lot going for it, especially an outstanding cast and an intriguing fact-inspired premise. In the early 60's there was a resort colony in the Catskills that catered to the needs of married heterosexual transvestites. To see such New York theater stalwarts as Patrick Page (George/Valentina), Reed Birney (Charlotte), John Cullum (Terry) and Larry Pine (The Judge/Amy) in full drag is an experience not soon to be forgotten. (Birney's Charlotte bears an uncanny resemblance to both Bette Davis and Tallulah Bankhead.) Gabriel Ebert (Jonathon/Miranda) plays a younger first-time visitor and Nick Westrate (Gloria) is the friend who encouraged his visit. Tom McGowan is hilarious as Bessie, an overweight ex-sergeant who has a Wilde quotation for every occasion. Mare Winningham is George's devoted wife Rita. Lisa Emery has a short but important role as Eleanor, the daughter of one of the guests. The play has some comic moments, but ends up in much darker territory. The lengthy first act sags (I resisted the urge to say "drags") in the middle for a long stretch. Although the play addresses many interesting themes such as heterosexual transvestites' hatred of homosexuals, governmental intrusion and manipulation, budding activism and the collateral damage caused by people's life choices, I could not fathom what it was the playwright wanted the audience to take away from it. David Zinn's set and Kaye Voyce's costumes are effective. Director Joe Mantello makes the best of what is there, but cannot overcome the play's lack of focus. I'm sure things will be tightened up a bit during the two weeks of previews that remain, but I doubt that tinkering can solve the play's problems. Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes including intermission.

This time around, I was even more impressed by the excellence of the cast. They have deepened their performances and grown as an ensemble. The pace of the first act has improved and the arguments at the "sorority" meeting better reflect the individuality of the characters without seeming as pedantic as I first found them. Unfortunately, the problems of the second act have not gone away. What had seemed a sensitive group character study turns melodramatic. While I did not expect the ending to tie everything up with a neat bow, I still felt frustrated that the abrupt ending left too many issues unresolved. I wish the play had been given more time for workshops or an out-of-town tryout, because I think there is still a better play hiding somewhere inside. Nevertheless, because of the deeply affecting performances of the outstanding cast, I have changed my rating from two stars to three.

Casa Valentina **

For Harvey Fierstein to have three plays running on Broadway simultaneously is quite an achievement, but in this instance the third time is not a charm. His first non-musical (I dare not say "straight" play) in decades, now in previews at Manhattan Theatre Club, has a lot going for it, especially an outstanding cast and an intriguing fact-inspired premise. In the early 60's there was a resort colony in the Catskills that catered to the needs of married heterosexual transvestites. To see such New York theater stalwarts as Patrick Page (George/Valentina), Reed Birney (Charlotte), John Cullum (Terry) and Larry Pine (The Judge/Amy) in full drag is an experience not soon to be forgotten. (Birney's Charlotte bears an uncanny resemblance to both Bette Davis and Tallulah Bankhead.) Gabriel Ebert (Jonathon/Miranda) plays a younger first-time visitor and Nick Westrate (Gloria) is the friend who encouraged his visit. Tom McGowan is hilarious as Bessie, an overweight ex-sergeant who has a Wilde quotation for every occasion. Mare Winningham is George's devoted wife Rita. Lisa Emery has a short but important role as Eleanor, the daughter of one of the guests. The play has some comic moments, but ends up in much darker territory. The lengthy first act sags (I resisted the urge to say "drags") in the middle for a long stretch. Although the play addresses many interesting themes such as heterosexual transvestites' hatred of homosexuals, governmental intrusion and manipulation, budding activism and the collateral damage caused by people's life choices, I could not fathom what it was the playwright wanted the audience to take away from it. David Zinn's set and Kaye Voyce's costumes are effective. Director Joe Mantello makes the best of what is there, but cannot overcome the play's lack of focus. I'm sure things will be tightened up a bit during the two weeks of previews that remain, but I doubt that tinkering can solve the play's problems. Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes including intermission.

The Realistic Joneses ***

Will Eno's Broadway debut play, now in previews at the Lyceum is a strange mashup of the absurd and the hilarious, with a strong undercurrent of ruefulness and resignation. In it, we meet two couples, both named Jones. The older long-married couple, Bob (Tracy Letts) and Jennifer (Toni Collette) rarely converse, especially since Bob fell ill with an incurable neurological disorder. While sitting on their patio, they are surprised by a visit from their new neighbors, John (Michael C. Hall) and Pony (Marisa Tomei), who have just moved to town. Their initial conversation might be described as a combination of Beckett and Borscht Belt. Hall gets most of the good lines. The two couples at first seem to have little in common, but are drawn to each other and eventually form a peculiar bond. The play explores the uses of conversation both as a way to express, avoid and conceal feelings. Its blend of hilarity and humanity works well most of the time, but the one-liners grow a bit tiresome after a while. The high-profile cast handles Eno's off-kilter dialog with aplomb under Sam Gold's nimble direction. David Zinn's scenic design, Kaye Voyce's costumes and Mark Barton's lighting set the appropriate mood. Of the four Eno plays I have seen, this one was both the funniest and the most affecting. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes; no intermission.

Luce **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)

The publicity for JC Lee’s new play at LCT3’s Claire Tow Theater says that it is about a high-school student, adopted from the Congo ten years before, who has a secret. Unfortunately, this sounds more intriguing than it turns out to be. What we get is a look at a teenager reacting to the heavy burden of high expectations, abetted by the unconditional love of an overeager mother. I reacted with ambivalence to all the characters -- Luce (Okieriete Onaodowan), his parents Amy (Marin Hinkle) and Peter (Neal Huff), Luce's teacher Harriet (Sharon Washington), who makes an unsettling discovery about him, and Stephanie (Olivia Oguma), a girl Luce dated. Along the way, the playwright pokes mild fun at educational, parental and social-network doublespeak. Luce expresses the opinion that cultural diversity is often misused as a way to avoid treating people as individuals. For me, the play’s focus got lost in the shuffle. Timothy R. Mackabee’s multipurpose set features a blackboard that doubles as a scrim through which we see part of the family home. Kaye Voyce’s costumes seemed appropriate. May Adrales’s direction, so effective for The Dance and the Railroad earlier this year, worked no magic here. It made for an interesting, but ultimately disappointing, evening. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes; no intermission.

The Great God Pan ***

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
Amy Herzog's new play now in previews at Playwrights Horizons is never less than interesting, but does not provide the same level of satisfaction her previous play, 4000 Miles, did, at least not for me. If I had to state the theme, I would say it is the vicissitude of childhood memories, e.g. what is remembered, what is buried, what is simply forgotten, what is perceived as memory but was acquired from others, how memories of the same event differ. The high cost of being emotionally withholding is another issue. The seven vivid characters Herzog has created are superbly portrayed by a uniformly strong cast. Jamie (Jeremy Strong) is a 32-year-old freelance writer who struggles to piece together a living. Paige (Sarah Goldberg), his girlfriend of 6 years, is a former dancer whose career was ended abruptly by an injury, and is now studying to be a nutritional counselor. At the very moment when their relationship is in a severe crisis, Jamie is upset by a visit from Frank (Keith Nobbs), a former playmate whom he hasn't seen in 25 years, who has filed charges against his father for abusing him as a child. Frank's suggestion that Jamie might also have been a victim upsets Jamie's equilibrium. His conversations with his parents Cathy (Becky Ann Baker) and Doug (Peter Friedman) are far from comforting. His visit to his now senile former babysitter Polly (Joyce van Patten) does not provide answers. The remaining character, Joelle (Erin Wilhelmi), is a bulimic patient of Paige's. I suppose Paige's relationship with Joelle is intended to mirror her relationship with Jamie, but I did not feel their two scenes together were an integral part of the play. A final scene between Frank and Jamie ends the play on an ambiguous note. Carolyn Cantor's direction is assured. Mark Wendland's set of a forest glade with panels that pop out to form benches and tables is lovely, but distracting. Kaye Voyce's costumes serve the characters well. Running time: 90 minutes without intermission.

Question: Are there any American playwrights left out there who can write a two-act play?

Detroit ****

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With widely acclaimed runs in Chicago and London as well as nominations for both the Pulitzer and Blackburn Prizes, Lisa D'Amour's play arrives in New York with expectations high. Instead of Broadway, where it was originally destined, it has ended up at Playwrights Horizons, a more suitable home. The action takes place in two adjacent houses in a Levittown-like suburb that is showing the effects of changing times. Mary (Amy Ryan) and Ben (David Schwimmer) invite their new neighbors Sharon (Sarah Sokolovic) and Kenny (Darren Pettie) over for a backyard barbecue. Ben, laid off from his bank job, is home all day working on an internet-based business start-up while Mary works as a paralegal. Although stung by the Great Recession, they have thus far successfully hung onto their middle-class life. Kenny works in a warehouse and Sharon, in a call center; they recently met in rehab. They are virtually penniless and are making, at best, a half-hearted effort to better their lives. The two couples have very different world views and would never have become friends if proximity had not intervened. A series of mishaps plagues their get-togethers and their relationship eventually spins into chaos. The awkward final scene introduces a new character, Frank (John Cullum), to put events into historical perspective. Each character has at least one highly charged monologue. The women's parts are developed much more fully than the men's. Schwimmer seems to play the same character whatever he is in. Pettie is fine and the two actresses are excellent. Cullum is mostly wasted. The revolving set by Louisa Thompson is perfect. Kaye Voyce's costumes are fine. Anne Kauffman's direction gets over the play's lumpy spots fairly well. The theme of the loss of neighborliness in a declining America is not particularly original. The play has many flaws, but also many virtues, including lots of energy. D'Amour has an original voice and I look forward to her future work. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes without intermission.