Checkers ***

(Please click on the title to see the entire review.)
Douglas McGrath's new play at the Vineyard Theatre manages the not inconsiderable task of winning one's sympathy for the Nixons, especially for Pat. McGrath has taken a footnote to the 1952 campaign --- Nixon's struggle to stay on the ticket after charges of financial impropriety -- and built a play around it. For added measure, the story is told as a flashback to the moment in 1966 when Nixon decided whether to run for president again in 1968. Anthony LaPaglia does a credible Nixon and Kathryn Erbe is a superb Pat. Lewis J. Stadlen is a lively Murray Chotiner. The other principals -- Ike (Jon Ottavino), Mamie (Kelly Coffield Park), Herbert Brownell (Robert Stanton) and Sherman Adams (Kevin O'Rourke) rarely rise above the level of cartoon figures. Mark Shanahan and Joel Marsh Garland also have small roles. Neil Patel's clever set is greatly enhanced by Darrrel Maloney's excellent projections. Sarah J. Holden's costumes and Leah J. Loukas's wigs help recreate the times. Terry Kinney's direction is fluid. While the play has many entertaining moments, I could not shake the feeling that more loving attention had been lavished on it than it deserved. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes without intermission.

Picked **

Christopher Shinn is a playwright whose popularity has always puzzled me. Once again, as with four earlier plays, I left the theater with the same feeling of disappointment that I get after eating a meal that looked great but turned out to be both undercooked and underseasoned. In Picked, now at the Vineyard Theatre, Shinn describes what happens to Kevin (Michael Stahl-David), a sensitive young actor who is plucked from obscurity by a major Hollywood director (Mark Blum) to star in a "project" that should launch his career. The overcomplicated set-up of the first act spells out how he must bare his soul to the writer/director for six months while wired up to a machine that scans his brain activity. The original intention is for him to play both the hero and the villain (a robot), but another actor, Nick (Tom Lipinski) is brought in to play the villain because Kevin's ability to differentiate the two roles doesn't satisfy the director. Meanwhile Kevin's relationship with his girlfriend Jen (Liz Stauber), an actress/waitress who can't get "picked," becomes increasingly strained. At the end of filming, Nick leaves without saying goodbye and doesn't return calls. What little tension there is fizzles out in the second act. After the film's release, it gradually becomes apparent that what was supposed to be Kevin's breakout role turns out to be a dead end. Stahl-David captures Kevin's introspective passivity well. Lipinski is a lively presence, but Stauber seemed rather flat. Blum shines as the bigshot director who can be sympathetic, menacing, foolish and astute all at once. Donna Hanover is adequate in two small generic roles. Rachel Hauck's sleek unit set is both beautiful and effective. Director Michael Wilson makes the most of what he has to work with.

Interviewing the Audience **

The Vineyard Theater is presenting L.A.-based screenwriter/director Zach Helm in a theatrical curiosity inspired by a work that Spalding Gray performed for several years. Zach inteviews three audience members for about 20 minutes each. In some sense, there is little point in reviewing the event since each performance is different. Nevertheless, I will describe the performance I attended. Helm chose three men to interview -- a college student, a middle-aged man and a senior citizen. Each interview began with the question "What brought you here today?" From that point, the interviews headed off in different directions. The college student realized that his "major" had in effect chosen him. The second man has a husband and three children that they are raising in a complicated network of six parents. The retiree has a son he broke ties with and an adopted son with special needs that he has worked hard to provide for. Helm knitted the interviews together with the question of whether we choose our lives or discover the lives we have chosen. Helm's interviewing technique is deceptively low-key. He managed to demonstrate that everyone has a story. Whether you will find it entertaining depends on how interested you are in the lives of others.