A Manhattan Theater Club presentation of a play in two acts by John Patrick Shanley. Directed by Daniel Sullivan.
Cast: Margaret Colin (Ellie), Daniel Gerroll (Howard), Andrew McCarthy (Arthur), Edward Herrmann (Dr. Block), Park Overall (Lucille).
Psychopathia Sexualis," John Patrick Shanley's fetish fable about gender roles, intimacy and John Wayne, gets a New York staging that's considerably more urbane than last season's Los Angeles production, and if the tone shift de-emphasizes the play's sitcom leanings, it also undercuts some of its laughs. Even so, "Psychopathia" remains a clever diversion loaded with witty dialogue and with one standout performance.
For his third go-round at the play (the first was its preem in Seattle, followed by the L.A. staging), director Daniel Sullivan has encouraged a less cartoonish approach to the comedy. (Even Derek McLane's sets --- two New York apartments and a psychiatrist's office --- are convincingly realistic.) This might seem more in keeping with New York taste, but it also weakens the once-funny scenes opening each act to the point where they become little more than setups for what's to follow. Fortunately, what follows remains on-target.
The setup, then, is this: Arthur (Andrew McCarthy), a New York artist, enlists the help of his friend Howard (Daniel Gerroll) in retrieving a pair of socks that Arthur's psychiatrist, Dr. Block (Edward Herrmann), has stolen. Without these socks --- Arthur's father's --- Arthur is sexually impotent, and after six years of useless psychotherapy the shrink has confiscated the argyles in a last-ditch effort to cure the patient of his fetish.
Now Arthur's in a panic. His impending marriage to Lucille (Park Overall), a swaggering Texan whose New York apartment is dominated by a portrait of John Wayne, is doomed unless he can get back the socks and his manhood.
Howard, a pretentious, out-of-work financier whose own manhood thrives on an inflated sense of superiority, takes up Arthur's challenge, not so much out of genuine friendship but as a way of proving to himself that he possesses what it takes to be a friend.
The stage, then, is set for Howard's confrontation with the "evil" Dr. Block, and within minutes of their meeting the shrink has shrunk Howard's precarious ego down to pea-size. The scene is a tour de force of barbed dialogue and very fine performances by both Gerroll and Herrmann. Shanley combines psychobabble with the psychiatrist's cruelly blunt observations --- "You're a mean-spirited little rat," he says --- to great comic effect.
The second act follows the diagram of the first, but focuses on the play's women. Lucille is informed of her fiance's fetish (and the sock theft) by Howard's wife, Ellie (Margaret Colin), in a scene that could be even funnier if Ellie's loyalties to Lucille were less sure (the L.A. staging had more comic tension between the two women). But again, the setup pays off when it's Lucille's turn to visit Dr. Block, with the Dallas cowgirl more of a match for the nefarious doctor than any man in sight.
But is the doctor really evil, or does he have some other plan? Shanley hangs much symbolism on those socks as he broaches such issues as manhood, male bonding and gender roles, yet it's all pretty lightweight stuff in service of comedy.
With his Brit accent and droll delivery, Gerroll plays Howard as an upscale sophisticate rather than the nebbish of prior stagings (the actor replaced Jon Lovitz during rehearsals), and Herrmann is delightfully malicious as the psychiatrist. Colin is appealing as Howard's smart wife, though there should be more of an edge to the role, while McCarthy, who always seems on the verge of tears, gives a rather one-note performance that might be due to the writing of Arthur as more impetus than character.
In any case, it's Overall and her character, Lucille, who wrangle the show from everything else. Her rapid-fire delivery and Lone Star accent --- "I'm not one of those New York girls," she says, "I like to be happy" --- provide much of the humor in "Psychopathia." Both playwright and actress toy with audience expectations by making this Southern belle the smartest buckaroo in New York.
Set, Derek McLane; costumes, Jane Greenwood; lighting, Pat Collins; sound, John Kilgore; production stage manager, Michael Brunner. Artistic director, Lynne Meadow. Opened Feb. 26, 1997. Reviewed Feb. 25. Running time: 1 hour, 40 min.
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