We never see Pete, the dog, in Christopher Boal's new play Crazy for the Dog, which has just transferred to an Off-Broadway run at the Bouwerie Lane Theatre. That's too bad, since it would have given us at least one character with whom we could have empathized. As it happens, only one of the four characters in this family drama is appealing, and that has less to do with Boal's writing than with actor Ryan Tramont's skill and charm.

Jenny (Wrenn Schmidt) is a mentally unstable young woman who is incensed that her older brother, Paul (Patrick Melville), and his wife, Sarah (Christine Verleny), are moving from New York to San Francisco. In retribution, she has stolen Paul's beloved dog, the a[...]