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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Diner Also see Susan's reviews of Famous Puppet Death Scenes and The Tempest
Diner is an ensemble piece, with six leading male roles and three main supporting women, and director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall has found a talented and well-matched ensemble. Derek Klena gives the flashiest performance as Boogie, a hotshot driven by hormones and his need to gamble on anything, but equally entertaining are Josh Grisetti as Shrevie, whose life revolves around his love of music trivia, and Matthew James Thomas as heavy-drinking Fenwick, aimless and living off a trust fund. The action still centers on the bonding among the six male friends and their inability to comprehend the women in their lives, but Levinson has made the good decision to let the women's voices be heard more plainly here than in the movie. Specifically, the friends have gathered for the wedding of football fanatic Eddie (Adam Kantor) and Elyse (Tess Soltau); she barely appears in the movie but here she's a strong presence along with Shrevie's besieged wife Beth (Erika Henningsen) and Barbara (Whitney Bashor), longtime friend of Eddie's brother Billy (Aaron C. Finley). Maria Egler also gets one standout scene as Eddie's mother. Unlike the movie, the musical frames the story as a memory piece narrated by John Schiappa as the older and wiser version of Boogie. The device keeps the show running smoothly from one scene to the next, but it also tips off the audience that Boogie won't suffer too much from his bad choices. Another weakness is that some of the scenes, and a few of the songs, stop dead without resolving themselves, but that should be fairly easy to resolve. Derek McLane's scenic design, adapted by James Kronzer, moves sleekly when needed and converts itself from the title diner into a variety of other settings, most amusingly a jail. Signature Theatre
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