[Ed. Note: David Finkle reviewed The New Group production of Hurlyburly when it opened at Theatre Row in January. The show has now transferred to the 37 Arts Theatre, where it opened last night. Here is a re-edited and updated version of Finkle's original review.]

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If you read David Rabe's Hurlyburly before you see it, something jumps out at you that might not immediately get your attention during a staging of the frenetic, indisputably effective play: How often the gregarious, not to say querulous, characters throw the phrase "I mean" into sentences. The frequency of this tic-like expression is interesting in that what Rabe's characters say and what they mean -- if th[...]

If you read David Rabe's Hurlyburly before you see it, something jumps out at you that might not immediately get your attention during a staging of the frenetic, indisputably effective play: How often the gregarious, not to say querulous, characters throw the phrase "I mean" into sentences. The frequency of this tic-like expression is interesting in that what Rabe's characters say and what they mean -- if they mean anything at all -- is almost always up for grabs.

The hunt for meaning where there too frequently is none in the lives of these Hollywood types is so compulsive that, at one moment, the cocaine-snorting agent-protagonist Eddie (Ethan Hawke) clutches his Webster's and blurts, "I'[...]