Theater: “Scene Partners”with Dianne Wiest
This week, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince of a play off-Broadway. Latest casualty: “Scene Partners” (Vineyard Theater), the story of Meryl Kowalski (Dianne Wiest), a newly widowed 75-year-old who lives in Milwaukee with her troubled daughter (Kristen Sieh), but who is suddenly determined to become a Hollywood movie star.
Once Meryl arrives in Los Angeles, she barges into the office of a studio biggie (Josh Hamilton) and pulls a pistol on him. Later she attends an acting class led by a prima donna Australian director (also played by Hamilton). When he assigns the students to tell a story about themselves, he is so taken with Meryl’s that he decides to make a movie of it and cast her as the lead.
The problem with this conceit is that not only is it ridiculous, but Meryl’s story itself isn’t very interesting. In fact, the only thing that saves this “comedy” from complete disaster is Wiest, who acquits herself with her usual humor and dignity.
Only in New York could a playwright like John J. Caswell Jr. (“Wet Brain”) and a director like Rachel Malkin (“Hadestown”) conspire to make something so ill-conceived and convince a legitimate off-Broadway theater like Vineyard to produce it. Eventually, discerning theater goers will start noticing, stay home, eat chips and watch Netflix.
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