These days, when Mike Nichols chooses to direct a play, it's exciting news. One of the absolute best in his field over the past 40 years, he hasn't steered a straight play on Broadway since 1992 and the movie-star-studded Death and the Maiden. So there were great expectations when it was revealed he would helm a revival of Clifford Odets' 1950 backstage drama The Country Girl, and oversee another trio of movie names: namely Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand, and Peter Gallagher.



But the news turns out not to be so exciting now that the production has arrived. Although it's a workman-like treatment of the play, it doesn't rise to the inspired level Nichols usually reaches when he's [...]