| My review of MARVIN’S ROOM: Dying’s hard even if you can still laugh about it. | |
| Posted by: jesse21 10:19 am EDT 06/29/17 | |
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| - It is not easy to grasp the merits in the script of Marvin’s Room from the wan revival the Roundabout Theatre Company is opening tonight on Broadway. This domestic drama about two very different sisters coming to grips with terminal illness originally opened in late 1991 Off Broadway, following engagements in Chicago and Hartford. Its up-and-coming playwright, Scott McPherson, died just one year later of complications from AIDS at age 33. He based this play on his childhood experiences growing up in a household with an invalid grandmother and, contemporaneously with his writing, on caring for his lover and friends who were afflicted with AIDS. In a program note, Mr. McPherson wrote: “By most, we are thought of as ‘dying.’ But as dying becomes a way of life, the meaning of word blurs.” That central theme is embodied in Bessie (Lili Taylor) who has devoted the last 20 of her 40 years caring for her bedridden-by-a-stroke father Marvin (unseen but heard behind a glass wall) and his sister Ruth (Celia Weston) who has chronic back problems. Early in the play, Bessie is diagnosed with leukemia. A bone marrow transplant from blood relatives may help. That comes down to Bessie’s estranged sister Lee (Janeane Garofalo) and her two sons, teenage Hank (Jack DiFalco) and younger brother Charlie (Luca Padovan). Lee, a cosmetologist who hasn’t been in contact with Bessie for those last 20 years, drives to Bessie’s home in Florida from Ohio with the boys. It’s all rather convenient because the troubled (and institutionalized) Hank had recently set their house on fire. Anyway, the contrast between the two sisters is extreme. Bessie is dowdy, contained and shy, but perfectly happy with the way her life as a caretaker has evolved, even when facing her own terminal illness. She says: "I can't imagine a better way to have spent my life" as she explains that giving to others is life’s greatest reward. Lee is the polar opposite. This single mother is vulgar and promiscuous, so self-absorbed that it is no wonder her son Hank is such a mess. She does feel guilt over ignoring her family all these years which she thinks she can assuage by writing a check and leaving soon thereafter. The play is tough when it deals with Bessie’s leukemia, but too soft when it comes to Lee’s emotional turnaround in its final scenes. The extreme difference between the sisters risks being like the soap operas that aunt Ruth spends her days watching. Possibly with this in mind, director Anne Kauffman (Marjorie Prime, Maple and Vine), making her Broadway debut, has both Ms. Taylor and Ms. Garofalo act in a similar low-key manner and even sound much the same. Additionally, they are costumed (by Jessica Pabst) and wigged (by Leah J. Loukas) to look too alike. I often had trouble from a sixth row seat trying to tell the sisters apart. Marvin’s Room is filled with humor, the natural human nature kind of relief that people employ to get through life’s most difficult situations. In this production, such dialogue comes off as rather cheap one-liners. Mr. McPherson also laced his play with absurdist humor, mostly delivered by Doctor Wally (Triney Sandova) who treats Bessie. The character is eccentric but here he comes off as a stand-up comic interrupting the play. Then there is the totally unsatisfactory scenic design by Laura Jellinek. The play seems to beg for confined areas, rich in detail. True that the locations of scenes vary from the interior of Bessie’s house to medical facilities, the outdoors and even a day-trip to Disney World, but the large stage at the American Airlines Theatre is so sparsely furnished that the intimacy of the writing, usually conversations between two characters at a time, is lost in the vast space. On the whole, Marvin’s Room, 27 years after its debut, does not come off as a classic of twentieth-century theater, but it is a skilled warm-heated work that is far more than the disease-of-the-week movie it sounds like. It deserves better treatment than the Roundabout is giving it. I never saw any previous production because at the time the subject matter didn’t interest me. That was before I had to face the declining health of my own parents. So, before I attended the final preview last night, I took some time in the morning to stream the 1996 movie adaption with a screenplay penned by Mr. McPherson during the year before he died. There are only minor alterations from the stage play, just a matter of opening up the action to actual locales and a car driving scene on a beach. The movie cast is extraordinary: Diane Keaton in an Oscar-nominated role as Bessie; the incomparable Meryl Streep as Lee; a remarkable young Leonardo DiCaprio as Hank; Robert De Niro, funny and not overdoing Doctor Wally; an utterly charming Gwen Verdon as Ruth; Hume Cronyn, a strong presence as the now-seen Marvin; plus Margo Martindale, Cynthia Nixon and Kelly Ripa in smaller parts. The current Roundabout cast can’t compare and, sorry to say, doesn’t even come close. I had a much better time yesterday morning watching the movie at home for a couple of bucks than I did going to the theater last night. Which raises a question. If the Roundabout had nothing new or interesting to bring out in Marvin’s Room, why did they revive it? There are so, so many entertainment platforms vying for our attention these days. Live theater is but one option. It is the ‘luxury choice’ and therefore has to offer something special, even unique, to make the customer’s effort and expense worthwhile. A bland version of Marvin’s Room that doesn’t even measure up to a readily-available movie on any number of devices just doesn’t cut it. ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ - Jesse SIDEBAR: MARVIN’S ROOM opens Thursday, June 29, 2017, at the American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street, New York City. A Roundabout Theatre Company production. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission. Act One: 65 minutes. Act Two: 55 minutes. Limited engagement. Tickets currently on sale through August 27, 2017. Link to website. - |
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