The rumbling you hear at Second Stage Theatre is partially caused by the emphatic acting emanating from Michael Greif's unnecessary revival of Howard Korder's 1988 play, Boys' Life, which for ironic purposes borrows its title from the Boy Scouts of America's monthly magazine.

The rest of the noise rising beneath you is attributable to designer Mark Wendland's set pieces -- looking like gaudy trailers carnival folks might inhabit -- that roll around the stage between scenes, perhaps in a possible attempt to cover up the deficiencies of the text. Widely acclaimed when it first appeared -- and even short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize -- this 90-minute study of three former college roommat[...]