Way To Go

Listen, folks: Richard Greenberg is incapable of writing a bad play. His most recent effort, A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, has received some strongly negative notices, but that may be more about expectations than actual results. His goal here — which he has succeeded in accomplishing — was to write an intellectual version of a classic, Neil Simon-style comedy.

A wealthy power couple (Jill Clayburgh and Richard Thomas) await the arrival of their three adopted children, who are coming home for a reunion, but their comfortable lives are turned upside down when two of the children announce that they intend to marry each other. Naturally, this Benetton-type family — Thad is white, Juliet is of Dominican descent (they’re the one’s getting married), and Bill is Asian — is thrown into turmoil. And there are more surprises on the way.

The cast is in top form, with Clayburgh as the family matriarch providing an understated, natural performance that keeps the proceedings grounded in reality. Thomas holds the center admirably. Matthew Morrison is hilarious as Thad, who is a cross between a sweet innocent and a moron; James Yaegashi plays Bill with a dark comic zest; and Susan Kelechi Watson is suitably serious as Juliet, the beautiful daughter who knows exactly what she’s doing. The next-door neighbors, portrayed by Ann Guilbert and Leslie Ayvazian, have an important if somewhat artificial role to play in the proceedings, and they do so with style.

One couldn’t ask for a better structured comedy; there is layer upon layer of comic discovery in Naked Girl. Every line that is supposed to get a laugh gets a laugh — and, just as in the plays of Neil Simon, there are a lot of those lines. If the measure of a comedy is whether or not you guffaw from start to finish — well, let’s just say that we were roaring. Doug Hughes has wisely directed the piece in an invisible way, keeping the actors up front and the directorial flourishes to a minimum. John Lee Beatty’s set is a beauty that befits the family; it gets applause at the opening curtain, along with Clayburgh. The applause at the end, however, is for the playwright, who has written a very funny if slight play.

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Einstein Is a Gift

Intellectually rigorous, emotionally compelling, and artfully presented, Vern Thiessen’s Einstein’s Gift is one of the best plays we’ve seen in a very long time. It’s actually less about Einstein and much more about another Nobel Prize winning scientist, F.J. Haber but, to borrow a phrase from another scientific discipline, these two great thinkers of the 20th century are intertwined like a double helix when it comes to the great moral question of whether or not science should be used in the service of war.

Haber was a German Jew who was baptized in order to get beyond religious restrictions and continue his work. A devout believer in using science for practical purposes, he is credited with a breakthrough that allowed the production of a cheap fertilizer that ultimately saved Europe from starvation in the early years of the century. His work brought him a Nobel Prize. Considering himself a proud German rather than a Jew, he wanted nothing more than to be seen as a patriot; it was Haber who later created poison gas as a way to help his country win World War I. The horrific irony is that, during the World War II years, the gas was used in the concentration camp gas chambers to kill millions of Haber’s fellow Jews. Small wonder that he is rarely mentioned today for his accomplishments.

In reality, Einstein knew Haber somewhat and they sparred over Einstein’s belief in pure science versus Haber’s devotion to practical science. But Thiessen’s provocative (and admittedly fictional) play provides the fusion, if you will, between these two great men. The story is told in flashback, starting in 1945; Einstein narrates, looking back at Haber’s life to find the morally complex parallel that links the two men together in history. After all, it was Einstein who wrote to President Roosevelt in 1939, informing him that uranium could be used to create a new weapon of unprecedented power.

Shawn Elliott is magnificent as Einstein, capturing both the scientist’s social awkwardness and stunning brilliance; it’s such an amazing job of internalized acting that it might be overlooked. Aasif Mandvi is initially a little less sure-footed as Haber but grows into the role in the second act. Melissa Friedman is breathtaking as Haber’s devoted first wife, Clara, while Sarah Winkler is less convincing as his second wife, Lotta. The rest of the supporting cast is impeccable, including James Wallert as Otto, Haber’s longtime assistant, and Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., Glenn Fleshler, and Nilaja Sun in multiple roles. Ron Russell’s direction is fluid and elegant; John McDermott’s set design is evocative. In short, this play isn’t a bomb. It’s a gift.

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[To contact the Siegels directly, e-mail them at siegels@theatermania.com.]