The Young Man from Atlanta

C

When I saw the original production of Horton Foote’s drama in 1995, I was disappointed. When it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, I was surprised and puzzled. In the years since, I have enjoyed several plays by Foote, including The Trip to Bountiful, Dividing the Estate and The Orphans’ Home Cycle. When Signature Theatre announced this revival, I was curious to see whether I had somehow underestimated the play the first time around and whether my greater exposure to Foote’s work might change my mind. Unfortunately, I think I got it right the first time. Of the plays by Foote I have seen, I would have to place this one at the bottom of the list. Even when it was new, it seemed dated and it hasn’t improved with age. Furthermore, the current production is flat-footed (pun intended). As Will Kidder, the 61-year-old Houston businessman whose American dream collapses in an instant when he is fired from his long-time job, Aidan Quinn (A Streetcar Named Desire, Fool for Love) is believable but not memorable. As his cosseted but emotionally starving wife Lily Dale, Kristine Nielsen (Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) is miscast. Her performances in comic roles are always a treat to see, but here she seems to be fighting too hard to suppress her natural exuberance. Six months prior to the time of the play, their 37-year-old son Bill, who fled Houston for Atlanta at his earliest opportunity, drowned in a Florida lake while on a business trip. Although both Will and Lily Dale suspect it was suicide, they cannot even broach the subject with each other. The title character is Bill’s Atlanta roommate Randy, unseen in the play, who, as Will tells it, cried more at Bill’s funeral than Lily Dale. Will is suspicious of Randy’s motives and forbids Lily Dale from contacting him. She disobeys, with dire consequences. Lily Dale’s stepfather Pete (Stephen Payne; Straight White Men), of whom she is very fond, has just moved into their home. His grandnephew Carson (Jon Orsini; The Nance), who conveniently lived in the same boardinghouse as Bill and Randy, turns up for a visit and says that everything Randy has told Lilly Dale is a lie. We question whether Carson might perhaps be the liar. We also meet Will’s boss Ted (Devon Abner; The Trip to Bountiful, Dividing the Estate), Will’s subordinate and soon-to-be successor Tom (Dan Bittner; The Vertical Hour), the Kidders’ maid Clara (Harriett D. Foy; Once on This Island) and their maid thirty some years before, Etta Doris (Pat Bowie; The Trip to Bountiful). Her recollection of Bill as a child and her forthright expression of religious belief should be transformative for the Kidders, but it wasn’t impactful, at least not for me. There are other subplots including a puzzling confession of a misdeed from 20 years ago by Lily Dale and her doubts about whether Pete had serially mistreated women. In a rather heavy-handed metaphor, Lily Dale is obsessed to find out the truth about the Disappointment Club, which she is convinced Eleanor Roosevelt has started to lead maids to accept jobs and then fail to show up on the first day, just to spite Southern women. The themes of the hollowness of the American dream, the relentlessness of change, the power of denial, the use of money either to avoid intimacy or to seek it and the decreasing relevance of small town virtues in the big city all are touched upon. Three of the characters — Will, Lily Dale and Pete — appeared in The Orphans’ Home Cycle. Perhaps I would have felt more for them if I had had their earlier versions fresh in mind. Perhaps not. Director Michael Wilson (The Orphans’ Home Cycle, Incident at Vichy) has a sterling track record with Foote’s work, so I am puzzled why things did not come together better here. Van Broughton Ramsey’s (The Trip to Bountiful) costumes enhance the production greatly. On the other hand, Jeff Cowie’s (The Orphans’ Home Cycle, Incident at Vichy) set is problematic. In what is supposed to be a $200,000 (1950 dollars) home, the elegant living room has matching short stairs with no risers but pipe railings at either side of the room. It seems unlikely that a 1950 Houston house would be built around a central courtyard or that you would need to open a door to get from one wing to another, but that’s what we see. It’s just a symbol of the many ways this production misses the mark. The bottom line is that, no matter what the Pulitzer judges thought, this play is not top-drawer Foote. The brief catharsis at play’s end is too little reward for all that precedes it. Running time: two hours, 15 minutes.

The Roads to Home *** B+

To mark the 100th anniversary of Horton Foote’s birth, Primary Stages has mounted a meticulous production of this Texas triptych, unseen in New York since 1992. The first two plays are set in Houston in 1924. In “Nightingale,” Mabel Votaugh (Hallie Foote) and her next-door neighbor Vonnie Hayhurst (Harriet Harris) are interrupted by an unwanted visit from Annie Gayle Long (Rebecca Brookheiser), a young woman who is clearly unstable. Like Mabel, Annie grew up in Harrison, Texas and has begun to visit Mabel daily to relive memories of home. Annie’s husband (Dan Bittner) comes to claim her and urge her to come home to their two small children. In “Dearest of Friends,” the most satirical of the three acts, we meet Mabel and Vonnie’s husbands. Jack Votaugh (Devon Abner) is a couch potato who asks to be awakened from his nap when it is bedtime. Eddie Hayhurst (Matt Sullivan) has fallen in love with a younger woman and begs Vonnie for a divorce. The final and saddest piece is “Spring Dance,” which takes place in Austin four years later. The formal attire in which Annie and the three men are dressed suggests a country club dance. The high wall at the back of the stage suggests otherwise. Two other Harrison natives are at the dance — Dave Dushon (Bittner), a young man who never speaks, and Greene Hamilton (Sullivan), who is easily excitable. Cecil Henry (Abner) is a man who expects to be leaving soon. As the act proceeds, the characters and the audience experience increasing disorientation and confusion. Some people find Hoote’s work too homespun, provincial or even corny. I am not one of them. He is adept in finding the universal in the particular. The production is topnotch. Jeff Cowie’s set design and David C. Woolard’s costumes are excellent. Director Michael Wilson (The Orphans’ Home Cycle, The Trip to Bountiful) once again demonstrates his affinity for the playwright’s work. The actors are very good. Hallie Foote was literally born to play the heroine in her father’s plays. (In the original production, she played Annie.) Harriet Harris successfully dials down her big personality to fit the ensemble. I liked Rebecca Brookheiser better in the third act than in the first. The three men are fine in their dual roles. If you appreciate Foote, you will be more than satisfied with your time spent at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Running time: two hours, five minutes including intermission.

The Old Friends ***

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Horton Foote, Pulitzer Prize-winning chronicler of small-town American life as lived in Harrison, TX, worked on this play off and on for over 40 years, but apparently was still not completely satisfied with it when he died in 2009. Signature Theatre is now presenting its world premiere. In Foote Country, we are never far from family rivalries, greed, the lust for power, and in this instance, the nearest liquor bottle. Borden family matriarch Mamie (Lois Smith) is forced to live with her wealthy but greedy, unhappily married daughter Julia (Veanne Cox) and Julia’s rotund alcoholic husband Albert (Adam LeFevre) who makes no attempt to disguise his hatred of his mother-in-law. Their old friend Gertrude, a monstrously greedy, needy lush (Betty Buckley), is filled with unrequited love for her business manager Howard (Cotter Smith), younger brother of her late husband. Mamie’s long-absent daughter-in-law Sybil (Hallie Foote) returns to the family with news of her husband Hugo’s untimely demise. 30 year ago, she broke off her engagement to Howard and married Hugo out of spite. Gertrude regards Sybil’s return as a threat and acts accordingly. The equilibrium is further upset by the arrival in town of Tom (Sean Lyons), a good-looking young man on the make, who ignites a rivalry between Gertrude and Julia. For most of the play, Julia, Albert and Gertrude are drunk. The play’s imperfections include too many over-the-top emotions and a weak narrative arc. Nevertheless, Foote created a gallery of vivid characters superbly portrayed by a stellar cast. Novella Nelson and Melle Powers have little to do in roles as maids. Jeff Cowie’s set design and David C. Woolard’s costumes are excellent. Michael Wilson directs with the sure hand he always brings to a Foote play. Running time: 2 hours including intermission.

A reminder about ratings: I use a scale from 0 to 5 stars. 0 = Dreadful. * = Poor. ** = Fair.

*** = Good. **** = Very Good. ***** = Outstanding.

The Trip to Bountiful **

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The concept of this revival of Horton Foote's classic play, now in previews at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, is a puzzler. Although the four leading roles are played by black actors, the authority figures -- the ticket sellers and the sheriff -- are not. If the entire cast were black, that would make some sense to me. But the gimmicky casting raised distracting questions in my mind. Would the bus station and the buses in Texas have been integrated in 1953? Would blacks have owned farms and attended dances in Harrison, TX in the 1920's? Would a white sheriff have been so kind to a black woman? Wondering about these irrelevant matters might not have distracted me had other aspects of the production been more compelling. Even allowing for Foote's leisurely writing, the pace seemed sluggish. Cicely Tyson had some good moments, but occasionally swallowed her lines. Cuba Gooding Jr. was monotonously hangdog as her henpecked son and Vanessa Williams was relentlessly shrewish as his wife. Condola Rashad hit the right notes as Thelma and Tom Wopat was fine as the sheriff. Jeff Cowie's set for the family's cramped apartment didn't find a clever solution to differentiate the two rooms; his set for the final scene was quite lovely though. Van Broughton Ramsey's costumes seemed correct for the period. Michael Wilson, whose direction of other Foote plays has been so assured, seemed a bit off his stride here. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes including intermission.

Talley's Folly **

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Roundabout Theatre's revival of Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about an unlikely romance in small-town Missouri in 1944 is now in previews at the Laura Pels. The good news is that it much more successful than their recent revival of "Picnic." The not-so-good news is that the casting is less than ideal. If I had not seen the original production with Judd Hirsch as Matt Friedman, I might not have had as much difficulty accepting Danny Burstein in the part. Although I have admired Burstein in other plays, I thought he was miscast here. He seems too old, too unattractive, too given to shtick and too devoid of charm to be a plausible love interest for Sally Talley. Sarah Paulson also looked a bit old for her part, but handled the role well. Jeff Cowie's enormous set, so big that they had to remove two rows of seats to make room for it, calls too much attention to itself and subverts the intimacy of the play. David C. Woolard's costumes are fine.   Michael Wilson's direction lacked nuance. Nevertheless, even a flawed production of this fine play is welcome. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes without intermission.

Gore Vidal's The Best Man ****

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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.