'Cuckoo' clocks in Gotham
McMurphy does Tavern on the Green
Was the draw the venerable Chicago-based theater company, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, or "Cuckoo's Nest" headliner Gary Sinise, who brought the same hip legit/movie pedigree that Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly did a year ago in "True West," the last truly star-studded opening?
Most first nights these days are lucky to bring out Regis Philbin or Rosie O'Donnell. Notable birds at this "Nest" included Edie Falco, John Turturro, Ron Howard, Paul Rudd, Ron Eldard, Matthew Modine, Mary-Louise Parker, Eric Stoltz, Vincent D'Onofrio, Julianna Margulies and Kyra Sedgwick.
What they got was Sinise's star turn in the role of the unjustly institutionalized Randle P. McMurphy, a perf only slightly less manic than Jack Nicholson's Oscar-winning interp.
This Mac clearly needed no shrink. "He's just a great con man," Sinise offered at the Tavern on the Green party, a fete that was distinguished by its Passover-sensitive display of observing and non-observing desserts, courtesy of Steppenwolf sponsor Sara Lee.
In the buffet line, there was some talk of the show's legendary sexist subtext -- the bitch nurse and the castrating offstage moms and wives.
Sinise wasn't about to go there. "We don't talk about that," he said in hushed tones.
Fortunately, "we" did not include his director, Terry Kinney. "If the play seems mildly sexist, the novel is overtly sexist," he laughed. "I put 'Cuckoo's Nest' in the world of myth, and these symbols are mythological."
For his part, Kinney had another concept when he first considered directing Dale Wasserman's play, based on the cult novel by Ken Kesey.
"In the beginning, I wanted to do my adaptation of the adaptation," Kinney said. "Dale, however, said absolutely not. Now I see that he was right."
Writers generally are.
