A Doll’s House, Part 2

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It is virtually unheard of these days for a new play to arrive on Broadway without having at least one regional production first. Received wisdom has it that there’s no audience for new American plays on Broadway. The enthusiastic reception given Lucas Hnath’s clever new play at the Golden Theatre suggests that rules are made to be broken. When Jayne Houdyshell gets prolonged entrance applause, you know you’re not in a typical Broadway audience. It’s even more surprising that the play, presented as a sequel to the mirthless Ibsen classic, turns out to be hilariously funny. I decided to attend with some trepidation because I had been disappointed in the two previous Hnath plays I had seen — The Christians and Red Speedo.  Sometimes the third time is a charm. From the first moment, I was engaged by this version of what happened to Nora Helmer 15 years after she left her family. Hnath has written four juicy roles for four fine actors. Laurie Metcalf (The Other Place), always worth seeing, shines as Nora. Houdyshell (The Humans, Well), a Tony-winning treasure, is delightful as Anne Marie, the longtime family servant. Chris Cooper brings depth and nuance to the role of Torvald. Condola Rashad (Ruined) is cool and collected as daughter Emmy. Heath’s snappy, dialogue is anachronistically modern. So are the sparse furnishings in Miriam Beuther’s thrust set — two pairs of Scandinavian Modern chairs, a small table with a box of Kleenex, and a large plant. On the other hand, David Zinn’s costumes are faithful to the period. The oversize door, perhaps the most famous one in modern drama, is on a wall that reaches to an enormous height. The thought-provoking plot balances the conflicting motivations of each character, when each is forced to make a choice that will affect the others. It’s almost too formulaic and the ending, for me, was less than satisfying. Except for punctuating the scenes by blackouts with the characters’ names projected in huge letters on the set, Sam Gold’s direction (The Glass Menagerie, Fun House) is unfussy. I could have done without the loud percussive pop music that preceded the play. Nevertheless, the play’s strengths far outweigh any weaknesses.. And you don’t really need to know Ibsen’s play to enjoy this one. It was an extremely worthwhile 90 minutes of theater

The Trip to Bountiful **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
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.