Happy Talk

C-

Playwright Jesse Eisenberg (The Revisionist, The Spoils) does not seem to have had a clear goal in mind for this disappointing work. What begins as a comedic portrait of a totally self-absorbed suburban woman turns into something much darker. Along the way, we get a picture of the circumscribed lives of undocumented immigrants and a screed against our materialistic society. The woman in question is the needy Lorraine (Susan Sarandon; Exit the King), who slakes her bottomless thirst for attention by appearing in musical productions at her local Jersey JCC. Her ailing husband Bill (Daniel Oreskes; Russian Transport; Oslo) parks himself in an armchair with a Civil War history book and rarely speaks. Her declining mother Ruthie, confined to the downstairs bedroom, has been cared for by Ljuba (Marin Ireland; Blue Ridge, reasons to be pretty), an undocumented Serbian immigrant who would like to find a green-card marriage so she can bring her daughter to the US. While Ljuba’s alleged job is to look after Ruthie, she spends most of her time feeding Lorraine’s need for attention, almost like a surrogate daughter. Lorraine hatches the idea of fixing Ljuba up with a cast member from her current show. That turns out to be Ronny (Nico Santos; “Crazy Rich Asians”), who is playing Lt. Cable to Lorraine’s Bloody Mary in “South Pacific.” (Now there’s a production I’d like to see!) The fact that Ronny is flamboyantly gay and has a live-in boyfriend does not deter Lorraine. Ronny’s boyfriend has lost his job and is fine with going along with the fake marriage to get the $15,000 that Ljuba has taken years to save up. We learn midway through the play that Lorraine and Bill actually have an alienated daughter Jenny (Tedra Millan; Present Laughter, The Wolves), who, against all logic, breaks into the house in the middle of the night, allegedly to say goodbye to her grandmother before taking off for Costa Rica where she and her new husband hope to start a poultry farm. Jenny is such a nasty piece of work that one almost feels sorry for Lorraine. When Ljuba and Ronny begin to hang out without including Lorraine, she feels neglected. The final scene has a double-whammy, which seems partially unearned. While it is a pleasure to see both Sarandon and Ireland together onstage, the truth is that neither is ideally cast. The two men and Ms. Millan come off better in their roles. Derek McLane’s (The True, Burn This) set is the ultimately bland suburban living room, enlivened only by posters of Lorraine’s previous shows. Clint Ramos’s (The True, Violet) costumes are apt. Scott Elliott’s (The True, Good for Otto) direction lets scenes drag a bit. It’s sporadically entertaining, but it ultimately disappoints. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.

On the Shore of the Wide World

D+

2006 must have been a really dismal year for London theater if this tepid family drama by Simon Stephens could win the Olivier award. I will grudgingly express admiration to the Atlantic Theater for their commitment to bringing three of his plays to New York although I wasn’t too impressed with the other two -- Bluebird and Harper Regan — either. However, I liked them better than Punk Rock at MCC or Heisenberg at MTC. Even his Tony-winner The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was an adaptation of someone else’s novel and owed a lot of its success to its brilliant staging. Therefore, I approached the present play with low expectations. They were met.  We meet three generations of the Holmes family of Stockport, the suburb of Manchester where Stephens grew up — grandparents Charlie (Peter Maloney) and Ellen (the always watchable Blair Brown), their son Peter (C.J. Wilson) and his wife Alice (Atlantic stalwart Mary McCann) and their two grandsons Alex (Ben Rosenfield) and Christopher (Wesley Zurick). There is also Alex’s girlfriend Sarah (Tedra Millan), his friend Paul (Odiseas Georgiadis), Peter’s client Susan (Amelia Workman) and Alice’s new friend John (Leroy McClain). We follow the Holmes family over the course of a year that is punctuated by tragedy. The play has a seemingly endless succession of short scenes that generated very little interest for me. I don’t require sympathetic characters, but I expect to feel some involvement which was lacking here. I looked at my watch often. There is lots of regret, missed opportunity and lack of communication. The fine cast, which struggles uncertainly with the accent, deserves better than this. The set design by Scott Park makes efficient use of space. Sarah Laux’s costumes are apt. Director Neil Pepe does his best with material that is basically inert. Running time: two hours 35 minutes including intermission. Seating advice: Avoid Row B at the Linda Gross Theater because it is not elevated above Row A.

The Wolves **** A-

The Playwrights Realm is a theater company, now in its tenth year, with a clear mission: developing and presenting first-rate productions of plays by emerging playwrights. Every Fall they present a play by a newcomer (e.g. Elizabeth Irwin’s My Mañana Comes). The lucky playwright receives a year-long residency with substantial perks. In the Spring they offer a play by one of their alumni playwrights (e.g. Anna Ziegler’s A Delicate Ship). The latest evidence that they have found a winning formula is this debut work by Sarah DeLappe now at the Duke on 42nd Street. The title refers to an indoor soccer team of nine adolescent — 17-ish — suburban girls whom we see mostly during their pre-game warm-ups and practice sessions. The play opens with two overlapping conversations, one about the Khmer Rouge, the other about feminine hygiene products. As the play progresses, we observe how each player attempts to navigate the difficult shoals between girlhood and womanhood, moving between personal concerns and the world at large. Although each one has her moment, some characters are developed more fully than others. I had some trouble remembering who was who, especially since they are only identified by the numbers on their identical uniforms. The numbers are often hard to see and there are strong physical resemblances among a few of the actors. The emphasis is not on plot, although there is a major offstage development that propels the last section of the play. The cast (Brenna Coates, Jenna Dioguardi, Samia Finnerty, Midori Francis, Lizzy Jutila, Sarah Mezzanotte, Tedra Millan, Lauren Patten and Susannah Perkins as the team members and Mia Barron as a soccer mom) is outstanding, individually and collectively. The ensemble work in their drills is amazing (and looks exhausting). Director Lila Neugebauer (The Wayside Motor Inn) certainly knows how to manage a lot of people onstage at once. Laura Jelinek’s scenic design features an astroturf field, brightly lit by Lap Chi Chu, flanked by facing stadium seating. Asta Bennie Hotsetter’s costumes looked like authentic uniforms. Although I found the final part of the play a bit manipulative (and I wished that the armless wooden seats were more comfortable), my overall impression was highly favorable. I look forward to Sarah DeLappe’s future work, as well as The Playwrights Realm’s Spring alumni production — The Moors by Jen Silverman. Running time: 90 minutes; no intermission.