He almost reviewed it himself. Some time after Eugene O'Neill wrote "Now I Ask You,": in 1916, he said, "It's not my sort of stuff, but it's a damn good idea for a popular success." For the man who wrote "A Long Day's Journey Into Night," "Desire Under the Elms" and "The Iceman Cometh," among others, it certainly wasn't his sort of stuff. As a theatrical curiosity, "Now I Ask You," is fine, but as a play, whether comedy or tragedy, it falls very short in today's world. It opened over the weekend as a Muddy Waters production at the Kranzberg Center, and will run through June 27.
Mostly inexperienced acting didn't help either, as we deal with a high society girl, suddenly enthralled by the anarchist ideas of the World War I era, convinces her husband that open marriage will be a good idea. Think about a Nob Hill debutante falling in with the 1960s hippies of Haight-Ashbury while she's engaged to a Sausalito suitor. Of course, this being 1916, the centerpiece of an open marriage is not even mentioned. The poor girl has no idea what she is talking about.
Katie McGee, as Lucy the bride, is trapped by the part. She isn't experienced enough to be truly believable, and O'Neill's silly, sappy prose would be a supreme test for anyone. McGee is stuck with a collection of awful lines, and after a while, they defeat her. Ben Ritchie, her husband, is a stick, but he, too, must deliver lines that neither FedEx nor UPS could. Andra Harkins, as Lucy's mother, carries much of the action and does it well
Sarajane Alverson, as the loopy Leonora Barnes, is literally all over the stage, handling broad comedy with aplomb, but acting honors for the evening go to Alan C. David as Gabriel, a poet whose soul is wrapped up in pretension. He's plays petulant very well, and his ego, created by O'Neill's best lines and easily shown off by him, is large enough to play in the Rams' defensive line.
Director Jerry McAdams, trying to make chicken salad out of a sow's ear, was working with the wrong recipe.
Now I Ask You, by the Muddy Waters Theatre, at the Kranzberg Arts Center, through June 27
–Joe
Comments
One response
Hi Joe! I didn’t know you were posting reviews over here at TypePad. Thanks for coming to see our show!
-sja