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Dakin Matthews and Mary Beth Peil in
An American Daughter.
Credit: Joan Marcus |
Two Broadway veterans and incisive character actors, Dakin Matthews and Mary Beth Peil, deliver fascinating and detailed performances as a conservative Republican senator and his fourth wife, a seemingly flighty but actually canny socialite, in La Femme Theater Productions’ revival of Wendy Wasserstein’s 1997 play An American Daughter at the Pershing Square Signature Center. The trouble is these two wonderful actors are playing supporting characters and are not the center of the play. That role is Lyssa Dent Hughes, the senator’s daughter and nominee for Surgeon General whose appointment is in trouble. Lyssa is played by Jean Lichty, the executive producer of La Femme, who also starred in the company’s previous Off-Broadway revivals including Night of the Iguana and A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur. You have to admire Lichty for mounting a gorgeous production of a rarely-done play (Sarna Lapine smoothly directs and Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams designed the handsome Georgetown living room set). She wisely surrounds herself with a cast of Tony winners and nominees, but she lacks the acting heft to carry Daughter’s dramatic weight.
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Montego Glover and Jean Lichty in
An American Daughter.
Credit: Joan Marcus |
Wasserstein wrote the play in response to President Bill Clinton’s controversial appointments of two successive women for Attorney General, both of whom were lambasted and eventually withdrew because they did not pay Social Security taxes on wages for their nannies. Wasserstein used the incident to examine how women in public life were judged by unfair standards never applied to their male counterparts. Clinton’s wife Hillary would later find herself in similar sexist traps during her 2016 Presidential campaign. In Wasserstein’s fictional treatment, her candidate is a highly qualified doctor and descendent of President Ulysses S. Grant, tripped up by blowing off a jury summons and criticizing her mother for being a housewife. Wasserstein exhibited her customary wit and generated keen observations on women’s struggles to balance personal and political issues. It’s an entertaining and insightful work, but Daughter received mixed reviews and had a limited run of 89 performances.
So kudos to Lichty for bringing back this ignored, interesting play with its prescient comments on the state of politics and women’s roles. The troubles faced by Lyssa are a walk in the park compared to the bitter partisan battles in the Age of Trump. Unfortunately, the play’s impact is damped by Lichty’s colorless performance. She yells when Lyssa is supposed to angry, raises her voice a few notes appropriately when a punchline is delivered, but there is no depth or soul to her characterization. There’s no chemistry between herself and Robert Sean Leonard as Walter Abrahmson, her put-upon husband, an academic feeling minimized by his wife’s celebrity. Similarly, there’s a lack of sexual spark between Leonard and Carmen Zilles as Quincy Quince, a rising post-feminist author with whom he has a dalliance.
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Dakin Matthews, Jean Lichty,
and Robert Sean Leonard in
An American Daughter.
Credit: Joan Marcus |
Lichty also misses important details in her acting. Lyssa is supposed to be an intelligent woman and accomplished doctor. Yet when Lichty is examining what should be important files and papers, you can tell she is just shuffling them around in order to look busy until her next cue arrives. The most vital lesson I remember from acting class is every action you take on stage should be lived and tell us something about the character.
Both Matthews and Peil as Lyssa’s father and stepmother demonstrate this practice adeptly. Matthews reveals an entire lifetime when reading a letter from his ancestor Grant to his little daughter. We can see he’s really talking to his own daughter. Peil who has only a few scenes, packs in reams of subtext as she lights a forbidden cigarette and dispenses unexpected practical advise to Lyssa. I wanted to know more about these characters’ lives beyond the confines of Wasserstein’s play because the actors gave them such full realities.
The remainder of the cast is variable. Leonard does his best to delineate Walter’s dilemma of wanting to support his spouse while maintaining his deflated ego. But since most of his scenes are with Lichty, he has little to play off. Likewise, Montego Glover creates a solid interpretation of Judith Kaufman, Lyssa’s best friend struggling with getting pregnant by artificial means and her single status, but she also has a weak scene partner in Lichty. Ryan Spahn has a few moments of snarky energy as a conservative gay columnist as does Zilles as the self-important feminist. Chris Ghaffari makes an attractive hunky TV reporter, but lacks the necessary bite to make an adversary for Lyssa. Will Devary scores some laughs as a caricature of a spin doctor. But too many of these characters feel like cartoon versions of DC types. With the exception of Matthews and Peil, the cast fails to add the necessary third dimension.
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Joe Tippett and Elizabeth Stanley
in Disruption.
Credit: Emilio Madrid |
Meanwhile, across the lobby from American Daughter which concerns itself with issues of the past, Andrew Stein’s Disruption (also at Signature Center) features a much stronger ensemble coping with the present specter of artificial intelligence in a tightly written thriller with taut direction by Hersh Ellis. The ingenious plot concerns a group of friends manipulated by their wildly successful tech-bro pal Nick (seductive and scary John David Washington) into investing in his new company which is centered on an algorithm that tells subscribers how to live their lives. We gradually learn that Nick and his Machiavellian business partner Raven (ravenous Emma Kikue) are using their new tech to push the friends into making life-altering decisions without their knowing they are being played like marionettes.
Stein’s mostly crackling script is not without its flaws. Raven makes a last-minute personality change and some of the plot contrivances are credulity stretching. But the dialogue is snappy and the issues raised about the threat of AI robbing us of creativity and agency are alarmingly cogent and well-argued. The characterizations are complex. No one is a complete villain or hero and even the motivations of some of the unlovable characters are understandable. Ellis’ staging is inventive and startling. He moves the actors like chess pieces on Zoe Hurwtiz’s computer-inspired set, transformed by Reza Behjat’s sci-fi lighting and Yana Biryukova’s graphic video projections into a giant board game where Nick is the master.
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Irene Sofia Lucio, John David Washington,
and Jason Ralph in Disruption.
Credit: Emilio Madrid |
The ensemble delivers the conflicting emotions behind the group’s questionable behavior. I especially enjoyed Elizabeth Stanley and Irene Sofia Lucio as embattled sisters. In the most affecting scene in the play, the two warring siblings confront their explosive history of battling over boyfriends and who has the nicest house. Stein’s writing rings true and the actresses show us the pair’s fraught connection, equal parts envy and affection. In addition to those mentioned, Jason Ralph, Conrad Ricamora, Joe Tippett, and Shaunette Renee Wilson also reveal layers beneath the surface in this frightening but all-too-plausible cautionary tale of our probable future.
An American Daughter: Aug. 11—Sept. 20. La Femme Theatre Productions at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 20 mins. including intermission. ovationtix.com.
Disruption: Aug. 2—Oct. 4. Presented by Jack DePalma at Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 15 mins. including intermission. disruptionplay.com.
Note: An American Daughter and Disruption are not productions of Signature Theater Company.
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