Review of reviews: Stage
The American Plan
The American Plan
Old Globe Theatre, San Diego
(619) 238-0043
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
***
Richard Greenberg’s 1990 play gives an old Henry James formula a new twist, said Bob Verini in Variety. In his novels, James expatriated his Gilded Age Americans to Europe, in order to illustrate their clashes with the Old World. Here Greenberg brings the Old World—in the form of an aristocratic Jewish-German widow named Eva—to the Catskills, circa 1960. Eva lives to cast her cultivated aspersions on the crass “lower life forms” who populate that resort area. One of them, a WASPy fish-out-of-water named Nick, has set his sights on her spirited daughter, Lili. The ensuing “wrestling match” of wills between mother and daughter plays like classic James, and reveals “touches of elegance not unworthy of the master himself.”
Unfortunately, the script too often suffers from “restless plot syndrome,” said Charles McNulty in the Los Angeles Times. Greenberg, who would go on to write the Tony-winning Take Me Out, overburdens this early work with too many petty conflicts. As a result, director Kim Rubinstein “can’t quite make sense of the convoluted action.” The actors fare somewhat better. Kate Arrington whines too much as Lili, yet she does a formidable job of capturing the character’s “wounded eccentricity.” Patrick Zeller hits on Nick’s double-sidedness and seductive appeal. Most important, Sandra Shipley gives a sharp performance as Eva, capturing her disdain for uncultivated excess and her constant need to tamp down Lili’s optimism. It’s a shame the relationships between these characters are both “overloaded and not very convincing.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The nuclear threat: is Vladimir Putin bluffing?
Talking Point Kremlin's newest ballistic missile has some worried for Nato nations
By The Week UK Published
-
Layla: Amrou Al-Kadhi's queer love story splits critics
Talking Point Bilal Hasna gives a 'winning performance' in starring role – but the romance feels 'bland'
By The Week UK Published
-
Captain Tom: a tarnished legacy
Talking Point Misuse of foundation funds threatens to make the Moore family a disgrace
By The Week UK Published
-
If/Then
feature Tony-winning Idina Menzel “looks and sounds sensational” in a role tailored to her talents.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Rocky
feature It’s a wonder that this Rocky ever reaches the top of the steps.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Love and Information
feature Leave it to Caryl Churchill to create a play that “so ingeniously mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The Bridges of Madison County
feature Jason Robert Brown’s “richly melodic” score is “one of Broadway’s best in the last decade.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Outside Mullingar
feature John Patrick Shanley’s “charmer of a play” isn’t for cynics.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The Night Alive
feature Conor McPherson “has a singular gift for making the ordinary glow with an extra dimension.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
No Man’s Land
feature The futility of all conversation has been, paradoxically, the subject of “some of the best dialogue ever written.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The Commons of Pensacola
feature Stage and screen actress Amanda Peet's playwriting debut is a “witty and affecting” domestic drama.
By The Week Staff Last updated