Bickering, shtick and pith
REVIEW | Veteran actors at home in TV writers' play about family transitions
Life has a funny way of trumping art. While waiting for the lights to come up on "Better Late" -- the world premiere play by Larry Gelbart and Craig Wright at Northlight Theatre -- the elderly couple sitting next to me provided an unexpected prologue.
"Why are you so mean to me?" asked the woman, speaking to her physically feeble husband. She then turned her attention to her program.
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Knowing what I now know about the story that subsequently unspooled in the play, I can only imagine the discussion (or stony silence) that took place during their drive home.
When we first meet the long-married couple in "Better Late" -- Lee (John Mahoney), a successful film composer, and Nora (Linda Kimbrough), a former actress -- they are driving to see a play that just happens to star an actress with whom Lee once had an affair. It certainly was not this first. In fact, 25 years earlier, he'd had an affair with Nora, who was then seemingly happily married to Julian (Mike Nussbaum), and the mother of a son, Billy (Steve Key). Nora eventually left Julian -- the safe and loving but unglamorous used car salesman -- to marry the more charismatic Lee, whose life she has since run with the efficiency of an executive assistant.
Nora clearly was the younger woman in both men's lives (Mahoney and Nussbaum could easily be Kimbrough's father). But now, while Lee is still active and working, Julian has suffered a stroke. And perhaps out of guilt, or perhaps out of love and compassion, Nora has arranged for him to stay at their house while he recuperates, generously covering a number of expenses (by way of Lee) in the bargain.
As it happens, Billy isn't in any shape to oversee his dad's care. His marriage is crumbling at the moment, with a suggestion that family history tends to repeat itself.
With the distinct threat of mortality as well as years of unresolved emotional business hovering over the older characters, "Better Late" (than never) stirs up a bittersweet brew of sitcom cantankerousness, edgy bickering and full-out truth-telling that is equal parts shtick and pith. No surprise here: The play is a joint venture blending the talents of veteran playwrights who also work in TV -- Gelbart (still best known as the creator of CBS' "MASH") and the much younger Wright (who devised ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money").
The shtick can be Borscht-belt funny (a condo Julian bought for $36,000 is now worth more than a million, but that isn't quite enough to satisfy him). It also can be vaguely offensive (a persistent whiff of misogyny that is hard to dispel, and references to Filipino caregivers that might be true to character, but brought to mind the controversy triggered by a "Desperate Housewives" episode last year). Yet there is a genuine payoff in the final few scenes of this 95-minute dramedy that has been solidly directed by BJ Jones, with a neatly contemporary California interior by set designer Jack Magaw cleverly punched up with a triptych of screens featuring animated projections by Stephan Mazurek.
And it's good to see some veteran players engaged in the pleasure of playing their favorite game. Mahoney, gaunt and thin as a rail (a sort of aging Fred Astaire) nails each punchline. Kimbrough plays the energetic manipulator with ease. And Key is back in fine form as a son and husband in crisis. But it's Nussbaum -- wrapped in a full beard, corduroy pants and a thick cardigan -- who easily steals the show, whether using his walker as a shield or giving himself up to complete vulnerability in this tale of weddings past and funerals to come.
CHICAGO THEATRE SOLD: MSG Entertainment announced Friday the finalized purchase of the Chicago Theatre. The company plans nearly 140 concerts, family shows and other live events in the coming year at the 3,600-seat theater.
