A Moon for the Misbegotten–a review
NYC, Brooks Atkinson Theatre by way of the Old
May 30, 2007
I will be honest…my first choice for seeing a show on my day in the City was Spring Awakening. Every year, my wife and I (plus now, our little one) make a family visit to
With the Tony’s coming up, the entire town was buzzing about Spring Awakening that I was really stoked to see it. But as fates would have it, there was no matinee and with a little one being looked after on
But wait! Isn’t there an O’Neill play being performed. A Moon for the Misbegotten. I love O’Neill and I feel that his plays are vastly under-represented in the American theatre cannon. To add insult to injury, there was a marker on the building of his birth denoting him as the “greatest American playwright”, this building now houses a Starbucks! I wonder if he was a Venti or Grande guy…soy, skim, or whole milk. Ah, modern conveniences!
Oddly enough this production from the “greatest American Playwright” got its start in
This production takes place on a fantastic set. A lean-to shanty set against a brilliant electric blue sky which leads to a clear understanding of the dichotomy between the rich and the poor. A recurring theme that permeates the entire script. The sky symbolizes unattainable ideal life versus the shanty as the unabridged reality of life as it is and not what we wish it to be. Heaven and hell if you will, clearly displayed for us by the set design by Bob Crowley.
The costumes were greatly appropriate to the time frame and the economic level of the characters. I thought the neutral color pallet was a great counter-point to the amazingly rich colored sky back drop. The costumes were really a part of the character as opposed to simply clothes to wear. Nicely done by Lynette Mauro.
The acting was spot on in most parts but would wander into the realm of the overblown. This is due to the fact that the actors and director would not trust the audiences’ level of intelligence to comprehend the nuances of O’Neill’s play. They seemed to overplay moments to the level of beating us over the head with the point of the scene. O’Neill plays are not easy. He writes what is his version of his regional dialect. This tends to lead actors to adopt overblown accents and overblown emotional wailing and gnashing of teeth. This seems to be a common problem with producing O’Neill plays even with very seasoned performers as is the case in this production. Sometimes the play seemed to perform the actors rather than the actors performing the play.
That being said, the strongest performance was not by Spacey, not by Best but by Colm Meaney. His performance seemed stagy in the first scene but he seemed to find his stride and maintained that level of performance throughout the afternoon. He was a joy to watch. His relationship with his daughter played by Eve Best was very touching in the second act. The relationship between Meaney and Spacey at times bordered on being a special moment in theatrical history. Colm Meaney seemed the most comfortable in his character’s shoes than the others. For me, he stole the show.
Eve Best seemed to think that great acting comes at the cost of a great physical exertion. She seemed to be fretting about the stage with great fury but not great substance. I understand the desired affect this was to create for her character as an awkward and hard loved woman. But again this seemed to be a case of the play performing the actor rather than the actor performing the play. She is Tony nominated and I do not wish to take that away from her; however, I was a little baffled that a nomination would be granted for the performance that I saw. It was not poor, just not an award winning or nomination worthy performance in my opinion. When she would relax into the character, then she gave a masterful performance. These moments came as highlights to her performance but not a major portion of it. She had believable chemistry with Spacey.
Kevin Spacey was interesting to watch. He is definitely a crowd favorite as well as one of mine; however, he again seemed to have moments of disconnection and tended to overplay moments for a desired affect. He was funny in act 1 and a dramatic tortured soul in act 2. His performance had a very calculated feel to it. This left his performance a little flat which seemed to fuel his need to manipulate the audience by over the top gesticulations and vocal dexterity.
All in all, I am really glad to have seen this production with these actors. These stars. I am thoroughly appreciative of being able to see a top level production of an O’Neill play even though my wife and I lowered the average age in the audience by thirty years. Just next time trust the script and trust that the audience can handle the material without it being pre-chewed and spoon fed to us.