Susan Granger’s review of “Come Back, Little Sheba” (Biltmore Theater ’07-’08 season)
Sometimes revivals work – sometimes they don’t – and this comeback doesn’t.
Why? William Inge’s 58 year-old play has not aged well. It’s an simply out-dated melodrama that lacks the perennial appeal of either “Bus Stop” or “Picnic.”
Perhaps the Manhattan Theater Club sensed there might be problems so it went for the spice of color-blind casting. Talented S. Epatha Merkerson – a.k.a. Lt. Anita Van Buren on TV’s “Law & Order” – stars as lonely Lola Delaney, a former high-school beauty queen who, over the years, has become a slovenly Midwestern housewife. Kevin Anderson plays her chiropractor husband, Doc, a recovering alcoholic who is tenuously clinging to one year of sobriety while ogling their art student boarder, Marie (Zoe Kazan), who – in turn – is fooling around with a jock named Turk (Brian J. Smith), even though a wealthy hometown lad (Chad Hoeppner) wants to marry her.
While Inge’s repressed characters, as directed by Michael Pressman, are troubled, their downfall is utterly predictable – and contrived. Kevin Anderson fares best, as he spirals down into disillusionment. Sincere-to-a-fault, Merkerson captures Lola’s vulnerability but not her realistic absurdity. For that, you have to trek to the video shop and rent Shirley Booth’s 1952 version. Making her film debut, Booth won an Oscar for her cinematic interpretation of this role which she originated on the Broadway stage back in 1950. (The screen version featured Burt Lancaster as her husband and 23 year-old Terry Moore as the nubile nymph.)
In Moore’s role, Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of director Elia Kazan, is memorable; she’s an up-and-coming actress for whom “Come Back, Little Sheba” will be just a stepping-stone to bigger and better plays.
And production values – James Noone’s set, Jane Cox’s lighting, Jennifer von Mayrhauser’s costumes, Obadiah Eaves’s sound, Peter Golub’s music – are admirable.