'SHINE' ON BUT AUDIENCE GETS ONLY A GLIMMER OF POSSIBILITY.Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic The characters of Warren Leight speak in a kind of free associative patter pat·ter 1 v. pat·tered, pat·ter·ing, pat·ters v.intr. 1. To make a quick succession of light soft tapping sounds: Rain pattered steadily against the glass. , as if they are richly savoring the gift of communication and their ability to put it to use. Accordingly, a conversation between an aging trumpet player and his much younger trombone-playing crony often feels like a musical duet composed in a language the rest of us aren't supposed to understand. Language is a problem in Leight's latest play, ``Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine'' at the Mark Taper Forum The Mark Taper Forum is a small thrust stage with 745 seats at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Beckett and Associates. It has presented innovative plays since 1967. The world premiere of Angels In America was produced here. . The playwright is clearly an artful wordsmith word·smith n. 1. A fluent and prolific writer, especially one who writes professionally. 2. An expert on words. Noun 1. capable of clever, often funny dialogue, but his characters seem to like the sound and flow of what they're saying more than the content. ``Glimmer'' may be dealing with the language spoken by musicians, but this feels like an unruly noodling
Noodling is the practice and sport of fishing for catfish using only one's bare hands. session rather than a symphony. Taken as the story of family members who don't communicate, the play stumbles. Too bad. The production, muddily directed by Evan Yionoulis, wastes a deft turn by John Spencer John Spencer can refer to different people: Earls
Spencer and Silverman play Martin Glimmer and Jordan Shine, the aforementioned musical buds. A struggling New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of trombonist, Jordan looks after Martin and soaks up his wisdom, musical and otherwise. It's kind of a father-son dynamic here, and the two are practically family. Jordan's late father, Eddie, was also a musician, part of the ``glow-in the-dark horn section'' of Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine back in the '50s. Glimmer No. 2 is Martin's twin brother, Danny, (Nicolas Surovy) who kicked his dissolute dis·so·lute adj. Lacking moral restraint; indulging in sensual pleasures or vices. [Middle English, from Latin dissol habits (booze and drugs), gave up horn playing and went on to become a Greenwich scarf magnate. The Glimmer brothers have been estranged es·trange tr.v. es·tranged, es·trang·ing, es·trang·es 1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; alienate. 2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations. for decades, with Danny and his wife Martha apparently blaming Martin for sins of the past. The family's skeleton-laden closet is thrown open when Danny's daughter, Delia (Alexa Fischer), meets Jordan and learns about the Uncle Martin she never knew existed. The timing is unfortunate, since Martin - an ex-junkie living in filth - immediately slips into a coma, forcing Danny to reconnect with the part of his past he'd rather not face. Jordan and Delia's romance, meanwhile, is Leight's opportunity to examine two contrasting social spheres. He's an everyguy who goes to therapy and lives in (shudder!) the Bronx. She's a privileged blue-blood with a silver spoon so deeply in her mouth it's now practically in her esophagus. (She runs up a $200 dinner bill and cries when Jordan balks.) A miscast mis·cast tr.v. mis·cast, mis·cast·ing, mis·casts 1. To cast in an unsuitable role. 2. To cast (a role, play, or film) inappropriately. Fischer can't break Delia's cliched cli·chéd also cliched adj. Having become stale or commonplace through overuse; hackneyed: "In the States, it might seem a little clichéd; in Paris, it seems fresh and original" shell. If we like this character, it's because Jordan does - in other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , by default. Leight, who wrote the Tony Award-winning ``Side Man,'' has saved his juiciest writing for Uncle Martin. Spencer, who has played this role three times before, has all the best lines, even getting to deliver salty witticisms from a coma. Part of it's the deadpan delivery, and the actor's unwillingness to allow Martin a shred of self-pity. Martin may be going down, but he's taking the journey with gusto. But even Martin, for all his crude charm, is a man we enjoy more than we understand. All four of Leight's characters remain stubbornly inaccessible for so long that by the time we get to the events that give the story its guts, we're no longer engaged. The tune has lost its tone. ``GLIMMER, GLIMMER AND SHINE'' Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through March 4. Tickets: $30 to $44. Call (213) 628-2772. Our rating: Two and one half stars CAPTION(S): photo Photo: John Spencer portrays Martin Glimmer with gusto in ``Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine'' at the Mark Taper Forum. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion