The Country House

[Frankly Rich]

Yesterday I went to the evening performance of the Country House at LA's Geffen Playhouse. It's on a "trial" run before coming to New York on October 2d at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater.

 

"Anna Patterson (Blythe Danner), the matriarch of a brood of famous and longing-to-be-famous creative artists who have gathered at their Berkshires summerhouse during the Williamstown Theatre Festival. But when the weekend takes an unexpected turn, everyone is forced to improvise...inciting a series of simmering jealousies, a flurry of romantic outbursts and a bout of passionate soul-searching.

 

There you have it- the time-trusted story of a group of people gathering in a large house, where they interact as a group, in sub-groups, and in individual pairs. Seen that before? Of course you have. Terrance McNally has done it more than once. In Love, Valour, and Compassion it really worked well.

 

Sad to say it doesn't work so well here. Something has to happen to make you care for the characters, or most of them. I didn't care for any of these folks. There's humor, and the audience was constantly laughing, just not all at once. There'd be laughs in one corner, then another, so that it seemed as if constant laughter greeted the lines. But rarely did the whole audience laugh as one.

 

Blythe Danner stars and will go to Broadway. The show, written by Donald Margulies, is in three acts, with intermission coming after the second act. The closing of the show at that point centers around a scene that is funny, but if you think too much about it, it would never have happened in real life.

 

This is a Manhattan Theater Club production, and I seem to find their shows always lacking, so factor that in if you are a big MTC fan!

 

Rating: 2 stars