Bravo for ‘Clever Little Lies’
“Clever Little Lies,” the new play by Joe DiPietro, is described as a “new comedy” on the cover of the playbill, which is accurate to an extent. But this play has a dramatic spine that takes the audience on an unexpected journey, one that had the house silent, on the edge of their seats, at the end on opening night. That is, until the final blackout, and the bravos rang out.
Mr. DiPietro titillates us into his story, giving the flash of a frothy sex comedy, but this is anything but.
The play starts with Bill Sr. (Greg Mullavey) and Bill Jr. (Jim Stanek), sitting in a locker room after playing tennis. Senior has beaten Junior, an unusual occurrence. We learn that Junior is having an affair, despite the fact that his wife has just given birth to their first baby. That is as much about the plot as you’re going to get here.
Marlo Thomas, who plays Alice, the mother, is the star on the playbill, the name that draws, and is a star in every sense of the word. She is also a superb actress. She has a droll style, and an intuitive stage sense, with great timing.
The cast around her is superb. Mr. Mullavey, Alice’s husband, is a great talent. Besides his incredible résumé, he teaches the Meisner technique at Michael Howard’s Studio in New York and is reminiscent of Sandy Meisner, who developed the technique in response to method acting to emphasize instead the “reality of doing.”
Mr. Stanek as Billy created the part in the first incarnation of this play, as did the rest of the cast, at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick last fall. David Saint, the director, was wise to keep him on board. He gives us a young man who is at turns callow, then loving, then simply torn as to where to turn.
Kate Wetherhead is so beautiful as Jane, the wife on whom Billy is cheating. She plays the role with vulnerability yet strength. And what a voice. When she sings to her baby, it is the sound of a perfect silver bell. I hope she has a place to stay in New York. She is going to be there quite a while.
Let’s talk about David Saint’s direction. Wow.
A director is a complex player in theater. He or she chooses a play to work on, casts it, puts together a creative team, and takes the piece from reading to full production. Mr. Saint has been the artistic director of the George Street Playhouse for 15 years. If this is any sign of what George Street is doing these days, we should all take a detour to New Jersey to see what else he has up his sleeve.
The choice by Josh Gladstone, the John Drew Theater’s artistic director, to bring in a new work that is being fine-tuned is a good one, what with the paucity of rehearsal time under the union contract. The audience is, in a sense, getting the best of both worlds: a new work with a creative team that has been through the process with the play once before.
The design team Mr. Saint put together is brilliant. Yoshi Tanokura’s set, with its moving parts and integration of film, blends perfectly with Christopher J. Bailey’s lighting design. Scott Killian’s original music and sound design are equally strong in blending and moving the piece, and Esther Arroyo’s costume design perfectly captures the characters Mr. DiPietro has created.
So, you can pay Broadway prices when this show opens there — and that looks like where it’s bound, given that the packed house included Jordan Roth of Jujamcyn Theaters fame and other Broadway producers — or you can pay the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall’s very generous prices, if you are lucky enough to get a ticket. The choice is yours, and that is not a clever little lie.
“Clever Little Lies” runs a snappy hour and a half with no intermission. It plays Tuesdays through Sundays until Aug. 3, with evening performances at 8 and matinee performances Sundays at 3 p.m. There is no evening performance tomorrow or on Aug. 3.