‘It’s Only a Play’: Did we like it?

STAR POWER: (left to right) Megan Mullally & Nathan Lane. Photo: Joan Marcus

IT’S ONLY A PLAY
Written by Terrence McNally
Directed by Jack O’Brien
Through January 4, 2015
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200),www.ItsOnlyAPlay.com

By David NouNou

The first instinct of any theatre-goer who hears that Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Megan Mullally, F. Murray Abraham and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley of Harry Potter fame) are starring in Terrence McNally’s revival of It’s Only A Play would be to order tickets. And they did just that, creating an advance sale of millions of dollars. One wonders what this cast of luminaries saw in this flimsy excuse for a play.

It was presented as a re-write of Mr. McNally’s Broadway Broadway and played at the small Off-Broadway house at the Manhattan Theatre Club for 47 performances in 1985. It must have been a fluff piece about a playwright, his best friend, cast, producer and a critic awaiting the reviews of a show on opening night.  The premise was this: While waiting for the reviews, a lot of famous names of the day were mentioned, those evoking the mirth and humor. Well, now it is a fully mounted Broadway show with all the above-mentioned stars in this overblown, overlong, namedropping bacchanal, in which boldfaced names—ranging from Lady Gaga to Alec Baldwin and James Franco to Ben Brantley, critic of the New York Times—are bandied about as if the very mention of them creates an instant hysterical punch line.

For a comedy to truly work, it has to be embedded in reality, the people have to make sense, and the humor has to flow naturally. Yes, there are some genuinely funny lines as a result of the celebrity namedropping, but you can’t build a whole show around it. In addition, a critic who hasn’t written his review of the show yet would never be attending the producer’s opening night party. Worse yet is having a British director throw a tantrum that critics have only praised him and his works and he has not known a failure. I know that theatre people live for praise; I don’t think anybody in the theatre yearns for a failure…..and so it goes. What humor did all the above- mentioned A-listers see in this bit of fluff that has not been revived since 1985?

Thank God for Nathan Lane, for no one can inject humor into a listless line like he can. He and Stockard Channing manage to save the day with their over-the-top performances. Mr. Lane is James Wicker, the playwright’s best friend. Ms Channing is the drug and booze-addled leading actress Virginia Noyes of said play, The Golden Egg. The playwright, Peter Austin, is Matthew Broderick, delivering another one of his one-dimensional robotic, monotone performances; it now seems no one can flatline a comedy like him.

Megan Mullally is a puzzlement here; she is among the best scene stealers in comedy. However, as the producer, Julia Budder, she seems lost between a combination of her Karen Walker character from TV’s “Will & Grace” and a Southern bimbo who wants to be the sole producer of a show. Her part is too underwritten to make her believable or effective.

A part that could have very easily been written out of the play is Ira Drew, a critic played by F. Murray Abraham. He is fine in the role but there is nothing to substantiate his existence here because critics are a producer’s nightmare. Totally miscast, as the sniveling British director, is Rupert Grint. Why he was made out to look like Tim Burton, the film director, is a head scratcher.

Jack O’Brien, the director, does his best to keep things moving. After all, it is a step up from his 2013 Macbeth with Ethan Hawke at Lincoln Center. The pity of it all is there was so much anticipation and potential for this show. Had it not had so many stars, with each needing their stage time, this could have been written as a tighter, more insightful play for audiences to learn what really goes on after the curtain comes down on opening night and the agony of cast and crew having to wait for those ever-dreadful reviews. But then again, this is supposed to be a comedy.

OPENING NIGHT JITTERS: (left to right) Rupert Grint, F. Murray Abraham, Stockard Channing & Nathan Lane in ‘It’s Only a Play.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

THERE’S NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: (left to right) Micah Stock, Megan Mullally, Rupert Grint & Nathan Lane in ‘It’s Only a Play.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Video Excerpt from It’s Only a Play

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 12, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on October 11, 2014