Produced off-Broadway in 1991 and later made into a film with Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Leonardo DiCaprio, Marvin’s Room has been exhumed (or buried for good) by the Roundabout Theater on Broadway this summer. Here are the essentials: Marvin, unseen throughout, is dying and his daughter Bessie (Lili Taylor) has chosen to live in Florida to take care of him and his wife for the last twenty years. She now has leukemia. An estranged sister and her kids take a trip to see if there is a bone marrow match. Who did the right thing and who did the wrong thing? All of this is framed in sort of an absurdist comedy that includes a wisecracking doctor and mostly unfunny one liners.
A small, intimate character play thrust on a large stage does not help at all. The actors are lost amidst the space. I was in Orchestra Row F and had to concentrate hard to hear what they were saying despite the fact that much of the time the cast is downstage. On the way out, people were talking about not being able to hear key speeches. The set was oddly spacious with a turntable that sometimes moved chairs and benches two or three feet during scenes for no discernible reason at all. When you notice how many times the actor’s faces are not lit because another person is in the way, it’s hard to praise the lighting design.
The only performance I enjoyed was the troubled son Hank, played by Jack DiFalco who at least developed a full character, one who is in a mental institution for burning the family house down. (Yes, really.) The principles were just milling about and, in many cases, mumbling. The New York Times review of Janeane Garofalo’s performance called her “such a brilliant underplayer that I could hardly tell the difference between Lee’s awfulness and her kindness.” Bullshit. The only possible way this play could work is for everyone to be ACTING, in capital letters. This is not subtle stuff. This is a play where a costumed animal character rescues Bessie when she faints at Disney World. (Yes, really.)
The blame for this production of Marvin’s Room has to lie firmly with the director, Anne Kauffman, who has done fine, if not exceptional, work in past seasons that I enjoyed; Marjorie Prime, Detroit, Sundown Yellow Moon and Belleville. An unfortunate Broadway directorial debut in a production that can only be graded as poor.
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