A Prayer For PrayerYesterday, I was very intrigued to learn that
Victoria Clark, who won a Tony for her bravura perform-ance as Margaret Johnson in
Craig Lucas and
Adam Guettel's
The Light in the Piazza, has been cast in the upcoming Off-Broadway production of Lucas' play
Prayer For My Enemy at
Playwrights Horizons.
Just as in
Piazza, this incredibly talented actress will once again be working under the direction of
Bartlett Sher, who just earned his well-deserved first Tony for his loving direction of the current revival for
South Pacific.
Sher, of course, also serves as artistic director for Seattle's
Intiman Theatre, and it was there that I first
took in the world premiere production of
Prayer For My Enemy, which he helmed. Regular readers may recall that at the time, I said:
Unfortunately, the production under Bartlett Sher's direction feels incomplete and as unfocused as each character's out-of-body psycho-babbling thought processing.
That's not to say that parts of the overly ambitious dual story lines aren't intriguing.
In fact, there's a lot of "there" there.
The Playwrights Horizons casting of
Jonathan Groff as Billy, a U.S. soldier in Iraq, has also piqued my renewed interest in the work, and it will certainly mark a major departure from his Tony-nominated turn as Melchior in
Spring Awakening. In fact,
Spring Awakening fans might find more parallels between Billy and Moritz, with a dash of Ernst thrown in for good measure.
While further casting has yet to be announced, I was pleased to see
Skipp Sudduth (
South Pacific,
Writer's Block) cast as
Prayer's father Austin.
Cassie Beck (
The Drunken City) will portray Billy's sister Marianne.
Playwrights Horizons describes the play as follows:
It’s a hell of a night for the Noones -- father Austin’s watching his nature shows and trying to keep from falling off the wagon, mother Karen’s keeping an eye on Austin, son Billy’s just back from Iraq, and pregnant daughter Marianne’s upset about the state of her marriage to Tad, Billy’s childhood friend who may still harbor a crush on him. With the Red Sox battling the Yankees for the 2004 AL title, an American family’s long-held secrets are dragged to the fore in what may be its final reckoning. Prayer For My Enemy is a pæan to our age, a keenly-layered drama about the preciousness of life and the grace to share common ground -- even with those we love the least.
Judging from the description, it appears that the play may have certainly evolved, perhaps even significantly, since first being presented in Seattle (after its world premiere there, it was presented last fall at Connecticut's
Long Wharf Theatre). As my last line from my SOB Review last summer would attest, I'm certainly hoping that it has become more focused in time for its New York City premiere:
Prayer For My Enemy certainly aspires to be thoughtful and thought-provoking, yet in its current state, it's strangely deficient. Whether it will be shored up before heading to Long Wharf Theatre next month remains to be seen. Since I greatly admire Craig Lucas, I'll say a little prayer.
I'm still praying.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:Prayer For My Enemy (The SOB Review) (August 22, 2007)
Labels: Bartlett Sher, Cassie Beck, Craig Lucas, Intiman, Jonathan Groff, Off-Broadway, Play, Playwrights Horizons, Prayer For My Enemy, Seattle, Skipp Sudduth, Spring Awakening, Victoria Clark
Prayer For My Enemy (The SOB Review) - Intiman Theatre, Seattle WA** (out of ****)It's no secret that the biggest world premiere to hit Seattle theatre in years is
Young Frankenstein. However, barely a mile away, another world premiere production is currently playing, this time from critically-acclaimed playwright
Craig Lucas.
I've been quite clear in this space how riveting I've found Lucas' previous works. His haunting
Small Tragedy ranks as one of my favorite plays. Talk about a drama that shook me to my core.
So it was with great anticipation, perhaps
too much, that I visited the
Intiman -- Seattle's leading, Tony Award-winning regional theatre -- to discover Lucas' latest work,
Prayer For My Enemy. Unfortunately, the production under
Bartlett Sher's direction feels incomplete and as unfocused as each character's out-of-body psycho-babbling thought processing.
That's not to say that parts of the overly ambitious dual story lines aren't intriguing.
First, there's the tale of a young gay man named Billy, who's in denial about his sexuality. Billy is portrayed by an all-too strapping Daniel Zaitchik, who comes across more as the quintessential boy next door. Seems he's so tired of the taunts from his own alcoholic father Austin (a prickly
John Procaccino) that he enlists in the military just to prove he's a real man.
Immediately before heading to Iraq, Billy has a chance encounter with his first love Tad (
James McMenamin), who's since gone into a slightly delusional tailspin after divorcing his wife. Billy invites Tad to his bon voyage send-off where the latter becomes reacquainted with Billy's sister Marianne (Chelsey Rives).
While in Iraq, Billy suffers a serious head injury, but it doesn't cut nearly as deep as the discovery that Tad and Marianne are now having a baby, forcing the young soldier to rethink whether he can really be true to himself and Tad. Meanwhile, Tad's trying to fit into his new surroundings by ingratiating himself with Austin and his wife Karen (Cynthia Lauren Tewes -- yes,
that Lauren Tewes).
Concurrently, there's the story of the frazzled middle-aged woman Delores (Kimberly King) who's practically come undone in determining how to care for her ailing mother. Delores regales with her own frustrated tales of living in the Big Apple. She's just plain miserable and alone. Even the staging of Delores' soliloquies underscore how bleak her life has become.
In anticipating a major payoff when the two very separate threads finally come together, they're not so much woven together as they are mismatched. The chance manner in which they're tied together is less than satisfying, unless the point is to show how unperfectly random life is.
In my humble estimation, that's quite atypical of Lucas' other work. What's riveted me most in his unique storytelling is how well he usually enables his strange twists to make sense. Here, it just seems like pure happenstance.
That's not to say that there aren't some sobering moments. It's particularly poignant that the most despicable character in the entire play -- Billy's father -- also turns out to be the surprising source for the show's title, a man who isn't afraid to get down on his knees to pray for America's enemies.
Of all the spare design elements, the one that struck me most was the arresting sound design provided by Stephen LeGrand, including the subtle beeping of the ATM machines where Billy and Tad first reunite.
Prayer For My Enemy certainly aspires to be thoughtful and thought-provoking, yet in its current state, it's strangely deficient. Whether it will be shored up before heading to Long Wharf Theatre next month remains to be seen.
Since I greatly admire Craig Lucas, I'll say a little prayer.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: Bartlett Sher, Craig Lucas, Intiman, Prayer For My Enemy, Seattle, Small Tragedy, The SOB Review
