Sell/Buy/Date *** B

It’s hard to believe that 12 years have passed since I first saw the incredibly talented Sarah Jones perform “Bridge & Tunnel,” her love letter to the immigrants of New York City, in which she created about a dozen characters of different ethnicities. It moved to Broadway and was awarded a special Tony. Since then, Ms. Jones has been busy with a variety of activities, including serving as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and advocating for women in the sex industry. When Manhattan Theatre Club announced her long-awaited return to the New York stage, it was cause for celebration. Once again Ms. Jones plays multiple characters, loosely connected by some involvement in selling or buying sex. The framing device has a British professor at some future time giving a lecture on changing attitudes toward sex work over the decades. Her lecture is enhanced by BERT (bio-empathetic resonant technology) which presents her students (and the audience, of course) with not only the words, but also the emotions and memories of each research subject. Most of the characters are vividly created and some of the points they make are thought-provoking. The lecture is punctuated by several interruptions during which the professor attempts to resolve a problem that is delaying her appointment as head of a new department. I thought this subplot undercut rather than enhanced the main idea. Dane Laffrey’s elegantly simple set is beautifully lit by Eric Southern. Carolyn Cantor is the director. While is was a great pleasure to see Sarah Jones again, I was slightly disappointed by the material. Running time: 85 minutes, no 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.

Fly by Night **

This new musical, now in previews at Playwrights Horizons, tries so hard to be likable that I am feeling guilty that I am unable to surrender uncritically to its charms. Three graduate drama students at Yale (Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick and Kim Rosenstock) wrote it for a student production five years ago. It has since been produced in Palo Alto and Dallas, where it received enthusiastic reviews. Its plot concerns Harold (Adam Chanler-Berat), a nerdy young sandwich maker in New York who falls for two sisters from South Dakota — Daphne (Patti Murin), a bubbly extrovert who wants to make it as an actress in New York, and Miriam (Allison Case), the introverted older sister Daphne has dragged with her to New York, who enjoys being a waitress and would rather be back home looking at the stars. That’s my first problem: the two sisters are such complete opposites that I found it hard to believe that anyone could fall for both of them. In addition to the central triangle, we meet Harold’s recently widowed father (the always excellent Peter Friedman), his cranky boss Crabble (the fine Michael McCormick); Joey Storms (Bryce Reness), a wealthy playwright/producer/director who takes Daphne as his muse, and, finally, the narrator (the admirable Henry Stram), whose various roles include the sisters’ mother and a gypsy fortune teller, and who keeps the audience apprised of the play’s many time shifts back and forth during the year leading up to the great Northeast blackout of 1965. My second problem with the show was that I didn’t find the central characters nearly as interesting as the people who surround them. Harold’s father and his boss are considerably more vivid than Harold. Why Harold behaves so thoughtlessly to his father was not clear. The sisters seemed more like bundles of characteristics than characters. The music, played by an onstage band of four, is serviceable and perhaps more than that for those who like rock. There is one ditty that you will have trouble getting out of your head. The authors are skillful at knitting their material together: a song heard early on develops entirely new meaning by the time it returns. The climactic blackout is a well-played narrative device to knit many strands together. I give the authors credit for not flinching at presenting moments of sadness. The second act, after a promising start, began to drag. I think the play would gain from a substantial trim that would allow it to be performed without an intermission breaking the flow. The uncluttered unit set by David Korins is quite attractive. Jeff Croiter’s lighting design adds much to the play. Paloma Young’s costumes are appropriate. Carolyn Cantor’s direction is fluid. It’s hard to imagine a better production. Whether the slightness of the material can support this deluxe treatment is another matter. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including intermission.

Arlington **

This chamber musical by Victor Lodato (book and lyrics) and Polly Pen (music), now in previews at the Vineyard Theatre, is basically an hour-long solo song cycle. To qualify that, the actress and pianist do join forces for a few critical moments and much of the music is more like a long recitative than a series of songs. The piece depicts a day in the life of a young woman from a military family whose husband is away at war in an unspecified desert country. Hyperactive and loquacious, Sara Jane (Alexandra Silber) gradually reveals her feelings about war in general and her husband's role in it in particular. We see her preparing for a visit by her mother who has just had her third plastic surgery and, later, recovering from that visit. I wish we had met the mother; it might have livened things up a bit. The pianist (Ben Moss), hidden behind a scrim, occasionally portrays the husband. A revelation near the end makes some of Sara Jane's behavior seem quite reprehensible. It's a real tour-de-force for Silber, who, except for occasional diction problems, performs well. Moss's role, though relatively small, is important and he is very good. The creative team has impressive credentials: Lodato is a successful novelist/playwright and Guggenheim fellow; Pen has previously succeeded at the Vineyard with Bed and Sofa and Goblin Market; Carolyn Cantor directed the highly praised After the Revolution. Unfortunately, much as I admire what they were aiming for, I found the results of their collaboration less than satisfying.

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?

Regrets **

(Please click on the title to see the full review.)
I was surprised to learn that Matt Charman, the author of this period drama about the inhabitants of a divorce ranch for men in Nevada in 1954, is British. It's hardly an obvious topic for a contemporary playwright, especially one from across the pond. Charman succeeds in setting up an interesting situation, when a mysterious young arrival, Caleb Farley (Ansel Elgort),  disturbs the equilibrium of the three current residents -- Alvin Novotny (Richard Topol), Gerald Driscoll (Lucas Caleb Rooney) and Ben Clancy (Brian Hutchinson). Adriane Lenox is fine as Mrs. Duke, the scrappy black owner of the ranch. Alexis Bledel is less convinicing as a kind-hearted young prostitute who visits the ranch, but the role is poorly written. The arrival of Robert Hanraty (Curt Bouril), an investigator from the House Unamerican Activities Committee sets the plot in motion. Unfortunately, the second act runs downhill and fails to fulfill the play's early promise. The set by Rachel Hauck, the costumes by Ilona Somogyi and the direction by Carolyn Cantor are all effective. The results are sufficiently interesting that I had no regrets about seeing it. It was certainly the best of the three new plays that Manhattan Theatre Club has offered at City Center this season. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.