Frankie and Johnny in the Clair DeLune"
For those who braved the wind and ice, the opening of
"Frankie & Johnny in the Clair DeLune" was a minor
disappointment. All the hype over nude scenes and censorship just didn't play
out on stage. While it had all the elements that make for good community
theater, they didn't quite bring about the intended emotional impact.Perhaps
the small audience of 20 dampened the mood. But there was a deeper air of
inappropriateness that resonated up out of the sets and scenes and made the
work come together badly.
Perhaps on another
night with another audience, the performance might have worked better. After
weeks of planning and rehearsal, performing for so few is hardly inspirational.
But in a play like this, balance is everything. Character, setting and the
rhythm of events are critical to the whole emotional impact it is trying to
achieve. Many of these elements lacked the believability of the original
production, making for a rather flat rendition. The disputed nude scenes
<197> absent from the original Manhattan Theater performance in 1987
<197> were more embarrassing than shocking, diverting attention from the
interchange between the two main characters.
Despite the
reputation of the play write Terrence McNally, the play itself is structurally
flawed, creating a disparity between the first and second act that takes an
incredible actress like Kathy Bates from the original to overcome. In the first
act, Frankie is a hard-nosed realistic waitress who had been through the
romantic grind and has been embittered by it. Candy Joseph does very well in
portraying this character, but comes across less believably in the second act
when the roles reverse.
The play structure
makes less of a demand on Ira Fox. He plays his role consistently throughout,
bouncing up and down with the changes. Both actors have charm and grace,
presenting their characters without flub or blemish. But they do little to make
the audience believe they are as desperate or needy as the play says they
should be. Frankie does not come across as an actress reduced to waiting tables
as a career. Johnny doesn't look or feel like a man cast down by divorce and
jail. Even the set works against the fiction of the play, looking more a
Hoboken studio apartment than a walk-up cold-water flat in Hell's Kitchen.
Yet despite the
flaws, the magic of theater works here. The people we see are appealing. The
dialogue is clever and well delivered. The play does bring about a resolution
the audience can understand and applaud.
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