Susan Granger’s review of “Hillary and Clinton” (Golden Theater)
Blending fact with fiction, Lucas Hnath’s barbed comedy imagines what might have happened in a parallel universe on an alternate Earth, where a woman named Hillary was in the midst of a hard-fought Democratic primary race in New Hampshire in January, 2008.
Striding on-stage, Hillary (Laurie Metcalf) grasps a microphone stand, only to discover the microphone is missing. Undaunted, she retrieves one from the wings but it’s obvious from the get-go that she’s having a tough time getting her message across.
When her pollster/campaign manager Mark (Zak Orth) informs her that, after the Iowa caucuses, she’s trailing in the polls and they’re quickly running out of money, he begs Hillary not to call her husband Bill, a former POTUS. Of course, she does.
When Bill arrives, verbal fireworks ignite. Hillary knows how much Bill has been banking for speeches and public appearances, and she wants him to transfer funds into her campaign coffers. He’s not exactly opposed to that – but he’s also determined to stump for her.
“You’re missing an opportunity to take the thing I do well and use it to your advantage,” he says. “When I ran, I won.”
With Bill’s help and her own rare show of emotion at a luncheon, Hillary manages to win New Hampshire. But her victory is short-lived. Soon Barack (Peter Francis James) arrives with an offer to make her his vice-president, but she quickly suggests the reversal, which does not sit well with her opponent.
Lucas Hnath, who wrote the Ibsen sequel “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” for which Laurie Metcalf won a 2017 Tony Award, writes incisive, provocative dialogue, filled with fluid subtext. Hillary calls Bill “a stench she can’t shake,” and Bill bemoans that Barack’s meteoric rise makes him feel “erased, like I never existed.”
Monica Lewinsky’s name is never spoken, although Hillary alludes to how she staunchly stood by the philandering husband who publicly humiliated her,
Directed by Joe Mantello, both Metcalf and Lithgow are at the top of their game here. She’s steely, straight-forward and steadfast in her ambition. He’s understated except when it comes to his intuitive ability to seduce voters. Chloe Lamford’s box set is bland and sparse, while the costumes by Rita Ryack are deliberately nondescript.
“Hillary and Clinton,” which runs 90 minutes, is performed without an intermission. If you leave your seat during the performance, you are not permitted to return.