The Perplexed

D+

Let me begin with quotes from two previous reviews:

“No one knows how to pander to a Manhattan Theatre Club audience better than Richard Greenberg. String together some witty one-liners, throw in a Jewish matron, add a few Yiddish words, mention Great Neck at least once and, voila, MTC awaits with open arms.” (Our Mother’s Brief Affair)

“There seems to be something about Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage I at City Center that inspires scenic designers. Some of the finest set designs I have seen in New York have been at that theater. … Unfortunately, the “magic” effect of MTC’s Stage I on set designers does not seem to apply to playwrights. I have seen too many clunkers with great sets here, including this one.” (Long Lost)

Alas, both of these observations could apply just as well to Greenberg’s latest effort, now in previews at MTC. While the mention of Great Neck may be missing this time, we get not one but two Jewish matrons. Lest he ignore any segment of the typical MTC audience, he includes a gay character as well.

Once again, Santo Loquasto is the true star of the evening. I thought his set of a grand CPW apartment for The Assembled Parties could not be topped, but this set of a library off the ballroom of a Fifth Avenue apartment comes very close. If only what took place on the set were as impressive as the set itself!

The ten characters are all attending a wedding which, for some reason, starts with a reception and dancing and concludes with vows at midnight. The apartment belongs to the unseen Berland Stahl, a much-hated real estate bigwig, and grandfather of the bride Isabelle (Tess Frazer; Mary Page Marlowe). Her parents are Joseph (Frank Wood; Side Man, Network) and Evy (Margaret Colin; Jackie, Defiance), who is a NYC councilwoman. Her brother Micah (Zane Pais; Dead Poets Society) has just been involved in a scandal. Her uncle James (Patrick Breen; The New Englanders, Next Fall) is an author whose popularity has passed. We learn that Isabelle’s family have been disinherited by Berland after some messy lawsuits.

The groom is Caleb Resnick (JD Taylor; Apologia, The Last Match), a do-gooder, whose parents Ted (Gregg Edelman; City of Angels, Passion) and Natalie (Ilana Levine; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown) had a falling-out with the Stahls 20 years ago. The officiant is Cyrus Bloom (Eric Williams Morris; King Kong, Coram Boy), a long-time family friend whose career path led from Wall Street to the rabbinate to teaching. Patricia (Anna Itty; India Pale Ale) is Berlind’s Guyanan home aide.

Different combinations of characters enter the library and talk and talk and talk. Occasionally there is a witty line to remember. What little plot there is hardly piqued my interest. While it was a pleasure to see a few actors I always enjoy (Breen, Colin and Wood), it was not pleasure enough to make the dreary proceedings more bearable. While I admire MTC director Lynne Meadows’s dogged support of Greenberg over the years even though he has never produced a hit for them, I wish she would try harder to find new talent. Much as I enjoy their excellent sets, I wish they would spend less on sets and more on play development. Running time: two hours 30 minutes including intermission.

         

The Cake

C+

After successful productions in L.A. and the Berkshires, Bekah Brunstetter’s (“This Is Us”) comedy with serious overtones has landed in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage I. Those expecting a serious look at the legal ramifications of denying a wedding cake to a same sex couple won’t find it here; there is no lawsuit involved. What we get instead is a sympathetic look at a Southern woman whose religious beliefs are out of sync with her loving personality. The bake shop owner, Della, superbly played by Debra Jo Rupp (Becoming Dr. Ruth), is a woman of a certain age in a childless stale marriage who hopes to validate her life by appearing in a televised national bake-off. In baking as in life, Della seeks success by closely adhering to the rules. When Jen (Genevieve Angelson; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike), the daughter of her late best friend, returns from Brooklyn to plan a hometown wedding, Della is thrilled until she learns that Jen’s intended is a woman, Macy (Marinda Anderson; The Treasurer, Miss You Like Hell) , a journalist with inflexible views on just about any subject. The fact that Macy is African-American doesn’t seem to be a problem. When Della claims to be too busy to bake their wedding cake, Jen is crushed. While Jen may have escaped to Brooklyn, she has not been able to shake deeply ingrained feelings of shame about being a lesbian. In a subplot, Della tries unsuccessfully to rekindle the spark in her marriage with the help of lots of butter cream. Later, when her husband Tim (Dan Daily; Days To Come) finally sees the light, he tries to reciprocate with a heap of mashed potatoes. You will either find these scenes hilarious or gross. The play is interspersed with several droll imaginary interchanges between Della and George (Daily again), the unseen host of the TV series. Will Della be able to overcome her religious strictures to bake the cake? The ending seemed a bit facile. The production is greatly enhanced by an amazing set by John Lee Beatty (Doubt, Proof, Good People) with three revolving sections. The shelves of brightly colored cakes certainly made my mouth water. Tom Broecker’s (Our Mother’s Brief Affair) costumes and Tommy Kurzman’s wigs also make a substantial contribution. Lynne Meadow’s (Linda, Of Good Stock) direction is seamless. The play is entertaining but doesn’t really have much depth. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Linda

B-

A third play by award-winning British playwright Penelope Skinner (The Village Bike, The Ruins of Civilization) has reached New York in a Manhattan Theatre Club production helmed by MTC artistic director Lynne Meadow. Linda Wilde (Olivier winner Janie Dee), a 50-something executive at a cosmetic company, seems to have it all — a great job, a loyal husband, two daughters, a lovely home. (We are told that her elder daughter Alice (Jennifer Ikeda, recently seen at MTC in “Vietgone”) has a different father and that Linda had to raise her alone, but we don’t learn the circumstances.) Linda won an important advertising prize 10 years before with a campaign emphasizing women’s inner beauty. When she proposes targeting the company’s new anti-aging cream to women over 50, her boss Dave (John C. Vennema) vetoes the idea. He thinks it’s better to trade on the insecurities of younger women and market to them and has brought in Amy (Molly Griggs), a 25-year old hotshot, to head the campaign. Linda learns that her husband Neil (Donald Sage Mackay) is canoodling with Stevie (Meghann Fahy), the attractive young singer in his band. Daughter Alice is a mess; she has been vegetating at home and won’t take off her skunk costume onesie. Apparently, she was permanently traumatized by a shaming incident at school 10 years ago. Younger daughter Bridget (Molly Janson) is about to audition for a drama academy, but wants to do a man’s speech since she thinks there are few good speeches for women. Luke (Maurice Jones) is a flirty temp at Linda’s office who is leaving soon for Bali. It turns out that Amy was in school with Alice and was complicit in her shaming. In another unlikely twist, mother imitates daughter with similarly disastrous consequences. Even the elements conspire; we get a Lear-worthy storm, for no discernible reason. The underlying problem of being an aging woman in contemporary society gets lost in the melodrama. On the plus side, we get a strong performance from Janie Dee and a sleek revolving set by Walt Spangler that is even color-coordinated with Jennifer von Mayrhauser’s attractive costumes. Too bad that the work came across, to me at least, as a heavy-handed polemic that did not do justice to its topic. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including intermission.

Our Mother's Brief Affair *

Noone knows how to pander to a Manhattan Theatre Club audience better than Richard Greenberg. String together some witty one-liners, throw in a Jewish matron, add a few Yiddish words, mention Great Neck at least once and, voila, MTC awaits with open arms. If you can get Linda Lavin to play the matron, all the better. And so we now have this strange lumpy play occupying the stage of the Friedman Theater. Anna (Lavin), on her deathbed for the umpteenth time and not fully of sound mind, confides to her son Seth (Gregg Keller), a gay solitary obit writer, that she had an affair when he was a teenager. Having trouble processing this information on his own, he summons his twin sister Abby (Kate Arrington) back from Southern California, leaving her wife and infant behind. Anna claims that while Seth was taking unwanted viola lessons at Juilliard, she was carrying on with a man (John Procaccino) she met on a park bench in Central Park who said his name was Fred Weintraub. SPOILER ALERT: Read no further if you don’t want to know an important plot point. Fred later reveals that he is actually David Greenglass, the man largely responsible for sending his sister Ether Rosenberg to the electric chair. (I confess that I find it distasteful when a playwright drags in a well-known historical moment, be it 9/11 or the Rosenberg case, to prop up his play.) To remind the audience who Greenglass was, director Lynn Meadow turns up the house lights so Seth can give us a short lecture, thereby destroying whatever mood had been established. David's confession is not a turnoff for Anna who responds with a confession of her own, recalling a shameful incident from her early adulthood. Time passes, Anna worsens, moves to assisted living and the family home is sold. Seth and Abby have their doubts about the truthfulness of Anna’s story. Unfortunately, Anna is so unsympathetic and her adult children so emotionally stunted that it is hard to develop much concern for them. The exposition involves long scenes of Anna and Phil/David reenacting her story while Seth and Abby are reduced to standing around and injecting an occasional sarcastic remark. Keller and Arrington make the best of their underwritten roles. Procaccino is fine and Lavin is Lavin. She looks smashing in her Burberry coat and still has great legs. That seemed enough to satisfy the audience. Santo Loquasto's understated set is a far cry from MTC's typically lavish set designs. Running time: two hours including intermission.

Of Good Stock **

When Richard Greenberg’s scheduled play wasn’t ready on time, Manhattan Theatre Club replaced it with this piece by Melissa Ross that premiered at South Coast Repertory earlier this year. In it we meet the Stockton sisters — Jess (Jennifer Mudge), Amy (Alicia Silverstone) and Celia (Heather Lind) — the adult daughters of a long deceased famous author, Mick Stockton, an inveterate womanizer whose wandering ways did not even slow down when his wife was dying of cancer. The family is gathered for a long Summer weekend at their Cape Cod home, which Mick left to Jess, along with his literary estate. Jess’s husband Fred (Kelly AuCoin) is a food writer who met Jess when he was Mick’s assistant. The occasion for the get-together is Jess’s 41st birthday, which is significant because it marks the year that she outlives her mother. Amy, a simpering narcissist engaged to the equally vapid Josh (Gregg Keller), is preoccupied by her upcoming destination wedding. Celia, a hippy do-gooder with commitment issues, has invited her current interest Hunter (Nate Miller), whom she met while building houses for Habitat for Humanity in Missoula. If the sisters are accomplished or lead interesting lives, you wouldn't know it from the play. During the course of the weekend, we learn more about all their relationships, usually at a high decibel level. The playwright could not have asked for a better production. Santo Loquasto’s evocative revolving set made me want to head for Cape Cod as soon as possible. Tom Broecker’s costumes suit the characters well. The cast is fine, especially AuCoin and Mudge. The direction, by MTC artistic director Lynne Meadow, does not hide the play’s shortcomings. The three-sister play has a long honorable tradition that includes works by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Henley, Wasserstein and Letts. I wish I could say that this play was a welcome addition to the canon, but after more than two hours of bickering and shouting, the only thing I welcomed was the end. One of the characters makes an exit before intermission. Lucky him. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes including intermission.

The Commons of Pensacola **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
Few first-time playwrights are lucky enough to have their debut effort presented by a major New York theater company, Manhattan Theater Club, directed by its artistic director, Lynne Meadow, starring two esteemed actresses, Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker. Amanda Peet, an actress known for "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"  and "The Good Wife," is that lucky person. Her play imagines the post-scandal life of Judith, a Ruth Madoff-like character (Danner), forced to live in straitened circumstances in a Florida condo, and the collateral damage to her family. Daughter Becca (Parker), an unsuccessful 43-year-old actress and her 29-year-old boyfriend Gabe (Michael Stahl-David), a self-styled "guerilla journalist," have arrived for a Thanksgiving visit. They are joined by teenaged granddaughter Lizzy (Zoe Levin), whose mother Ali (Ali Marsh) has broken off contact with Judith for reasons unknown. We also meet Judith's capable part-time homemaker-health aide Lorena (Nilaja Sun). What Judith knew about her husband's criminal activities is at issue. The troubled relationship between Judith and Becca is another focus. The play contains several interesting touches and the dialogue is actor-friendlly, but it doesn't add up to much. Although less than a rousing success, it at least provides the pleasure of seeing Danner and Parker on a New York stage again. I attended an early preview, so chances are it might improve before it opens. Santo Loquasto's set is appropriately nondescript. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes; no intermission.

The Assembled Parties **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
Richard Greenberg's family chronicle, now in previews at MTC's Friedman Theatre, introduces us to a highly assimilated Jewish family comfortably ensconced in their 14-room Central Park West apartment on Christmas Day 1980. Julie (Jessica Hecht), her husband Ben (Jonathan Walker) and their two sons, Scotty, 24, (Jake Silbermann) and Timmy, 4, (Alex Dreier) are joined for the holiday dinner by Ben's sister Faye (Judith Light), her husband Mort (Mark Blum) and their 30-year old daughter Shelley (Lauren Blumenfeld). The only non-family member present is Jeff (Jeremy Shamos), Scotty's college friend, visiting for the first time. Julie was a movie actress before marriage. Faye married downward after getting pregnant. Her daughter appears to be at the low end of the IQ range. Julie and Ben joke that Scotty will be president some day. Jeff falls in love with their life. A necklace of possibly genuine rubies owned by Faye and Ben's mother plays an important role in the plot. Act Two takes place 20 years later. Reality has intervened. The survivors gather for a smaller, sadder Christmas dinner. On the plus side, there are juicy roles for three fine actors: Hecht, Light and Shamos. They all shine, although I found Hecht a little too mannered at times. There are many witty lines for them to deliver. Another big plus is Santo Loquasto's amazing revolving set which includes most of the rooms in the apartment. Jane Greenwood's costumes are first-rate too. The play's negatives include a few plot points that make very little sense, a sluggish pace in the first act and a few roles that are underwritten. As I write this, there are over 3 weeks left before opening night. Perhaps director Lynne Meadow will tighten things up by then. As it stands now, there are many entertaining moments and a few touching ones, but it doesn't add up to a lot. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes, including intermission.