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You’d be hard-pressed to find material less suited to the American musical stage, with its penchant for plucky optimism and emotional schematics. The creative team of Doug Wright (book), Scott Frankel (music), and Michael Korie (lyrics) tries to make it work by creating a backstory in the first act. It’s 1941, and Edith is about to throw a party to celebrate Little Edie’s engagement to Joseph Kennedy Jr. (a liaison Little Edie claimed later in life, “for which,” a 2006 New York Times story noted, “there is actually a slight bit of historical evidence”). Edith’s father, J.V. “Major” Bouvier, tries to maintain old-world decorum while Edith, an aspiring soprano, ignores her philandering husband and dotes on her self-hating gay accompanist. Little Edie is caught in the cross fire when mom tries to turn the party into a recital—a maneuver that’s driven suitors away in the past. Throughout the hour-long scene, written and scored in period style, Edith insists that all she and her daughter need is each other.
The onstage Lisa coaxes four actors to reenact scenes from her life, focusing either on Ann’s efforts to form a neighborhood association or her own struggle to cure herself of the allergies Ann insisted she had despite the complete absence of any symptoms. But the scenes are so sketchy and broad—problems director Damon Kiely amplifies by pushing his cast to caricature—that neither story is presented credibly or coherently. And Ann’s repeated intrusions, which cause the actors to step out of character and play “themselves,” come across as forced metatheatrical contrivances.
Well: Through 12/14: Next Theatre Company, Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes, Evanston, 847-475-1875, ext. 2, nexttheatre.org, $28-$38.
