The Portuguese Kid

C-

This alleged romantic comedy by John Patrick Shanley (Outside Mullingar, Doubt) at Manhattan Theatre Club is about as buoyant as a lead balloon and as original as a Trump joke, of which, alas, there are a few. Jason Alexander (Broadway Bound, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway) plays Barry Dragonetti, a second-rate lawyer in Providence, RI who employs his overbearing mother (Mary Testa; The Government Inspector, Xanadu) as his receptionist. Twice-widowed Atalanta Lagana (Sherie Renee Scott; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Front Page), who has known Barry since she rescued him from a Portuguese mugger when they were teenagers, wants him to sell her house, if they can agree on his commission. Barry has recently married a despondent young beauty Patty (Aimee Carrero; What Rhymes with America) who had been cruelly jilted by her boyfriend Freddie Imbrossi (Pico Alexander; What I Did Last Summer, Punk Rock). Atalanta’s latest boy toy, it turns out, is of course, none other than Freddie. Even the dimmest wit can figure out how this will turn out. That would be fine if the process of getting there were amusing or surprising. It isn’t. There are some funny one-liners, but far fewer hits than misses. Scott was the only one who appeared to be having a good time. The others acted as if they wished they were somewhere else. I know I did. The revolving sets by John Lee Beatty and the costumes by William Ivey Long were up to their usual high standards. I wish I could say the same about the efforts of the playwright, who also directed. If your requirements for mindless entertainment are very modest, they may be met. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no interimssion.

What I Did Last Summer **

For the second revival in their A.R. Gurney residency, Signature Theatre has chosen this semi-autobiographical memory play from 1981. Charlie (Noah Galvin), the 14-year-old Gurney stand-in, recalls the Summer of 1945 when his father was away at war in the Pacific and his mother Grace (Carolyn McKormick) was trying valiantly to hold their WASP family together in his absence. Charlie, his mother and his older sister Elsie (Kate McGonigle) are spending the summer at their vacation home on the Canadian side of Lake Erie not far from Buffalo. Charlie and Ted (Pico Alexander), a townie two years his senior, both like to spend time with Bonny (Juliet Brett), a girl near their age but much wiser. The rebellious Charlie answers a “Help Wanted” ad placed by the local outcast Anna Trumbull (Kristine Nielsen). A free spirit, she has abandoned her WASP upbringing to live a hermit-like existence on the lakeside property left her by her former lover. She claims to see artistic potential in Charlie and gives him art lessons after his chores are done. He shows no aptitude for painting, sculpture, macrame or anything else she tries to teach him. She also fills his head with anti-establishment socialistic ideas. After one argument too many with his mother, Charlie flees home and moves into Anna’s barn. There is a battle for Charlie’s soul between Anna and Grace who, it turns out, had her own experiences with Anna 20 years prior. Clumsy plot devices intrude and the ending is less than satisfactory. Director Jim Simpson has chosen to introduce a drummer (Dan Weiner) to punctuate the action, a needless distraction. Michael Yeargan’s minimalist set is enhanced by John Narun’s projections of typed characters filling the back wall with stage directions. Claudia Brown's costumes are attractive and appropriate. All the characters save one address the audience to ponder whether the play is really about them. Despite the fine cast (although I found Galvin a bit too hyperactive) and a snazzy production, the play simply did not engage me. So far, the Gurney residency has been underwhelming. “The Wayside Motor Inn” showed him in his Ayckbourn mode and this play has echoes of Wilder. Let’s hope that next season’s Gurney premiere will salvage the residency and display more of the characteristics that made me a Gurney fan. Running time: two hours including intermission.

Punk Rock *

When I saw two previous plays by Simon Stephens (Harper Regan [http://bobs-theater-blog.blogspot.com/2012/09/harper-regan.html] and Bluebird [http://bobs-theater-blog.blogspot.com/2011/08/bluebird.html}) at the Atlantic Theater, I thought his work was moderately interesting. When I saw his adaptation for the stage of Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time [http://bobs-theater-blog.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-curious-incident-of-dog-in-night.html], I thought his work was brilliant. Therefore, I was looking forward to seeing the New York premiere of this 2009 drama, which received almost unanimous raves from the London critics. To say I was keenly disappointed with this MCC production would be a major understatement. Those who wish to avoid spoilers should stop reading here. One London critic described it as The History Boys meets Columbine, a comparison that is an insult to the former. Both plays are about the stress of English public (i.e. private) school students preparing for their A-levels, but all resemblance ends there. The teenagers in this play are all stereotypes: Bennett (Will Pullen), the bully; Cissy (Lilly Englert), his compliant girlfriend; Tanya (Annie Funke), overweight and usually overlooked; Chadwick (Noah Robbins), the bullied nerd; Lilly (Colby Minifie), the new girl with a dark secret; William (Douglas Smith), the troubled boy with a casual relationship to the truth who wants to date her; and Nicholas (Pico Alexander), the handsome jock that she prefers. The author puts them together in a pressure cooker and we wait to see who will explode. The final scene introduces the lone adult character, Dr. Harvey, played by David Greenspan, who, for once, manages to avoid his usual excesses. In a country where school shootings were not almost weekly occurrences, perhaps the play seemed more profound. For me it seemed merely extremely unpleasant and tedious. I will grant that the young cast is very good. The dialect coach Stephen Gabis got excellent results from them. Director Trip Cullman has not helped the play by tarting it up with the actors running around in animal masks between scenes. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes; no intermission (wise decision).