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Empty Hearts
((Circle Repertory; 160 seats; $ 32 top))
Michael Shartel ... Cotter Smith
Carol Shartel ... Mel Harris
Hutchins/Whalen ... Edward Seamon
Ennis/Sweetzer ... John Dossett
Kyle/Tracey/Maxwell ... Joel Anderson
Horvath/McCullough ... Susan Bruce
Judge, etc. ... Claris Erickson
The "thirtysomething" alumna plays a depressed housewife who ankles a bad marriage to marry a sensitive psycholgist. Carol's a mall rat. Michael works with the elderly, "getting them to forgive themselves for all the dreams they screwed up." He loves Springsteen, quotes Yeats, bless him, and rebuilds classic cars. He's also played by Harris' real-life husband, Circle Rep regular Cotter Smith.
Play opens with her dead and him the known murderer, so there's not a lot of suspense. "Empty Hearts" unfolds as a series of courtroom confrontations at Michael's trial, interwoven with the standard flashbacks that track the doomed relationship in an attempt to reveal how the passionate pairing dissolved so catastrophically.
There's a Rosebud scene that will be an immediate tip-off to alert theatergoers, assuming any theatergoer can remain alert through this turgid exposition. All of this is a surprise from playwright Bishop, who can be a facile and frothy stylist (as in "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940") as well as serious (as in "The Trip Back Down"). Here, he never gets under the skin of his characters.
It's painful to watch such good actors struggling to breathe life into a script that's beyond resuscitation, and Bishop's own direction goes nowhere in illuminating the play. Neither, for that matter, does Dennis Parichy's unrelentingly gloomy lighting.
Harris has an easy, fluid stage presence that's nicely revealed in the Circle Rep's intimate space, altered for this production to a thrust configuration to emulate a courtroom setting. Cotter's a veteran here, but his Michael is somewhat smug and artificial.
Supporting cast is fine, with the exception of Susan Bruce, unbearable as an arch prosecutor whose body language alone should have her cited for contempt of court.
John Lee Beatty's setting is uncharacteristically sterile. That, and the fact that Harris wears the same dress for the duration, make one wonder whether Circle Rep just ran out of gas after the spectacular "Baltimore Waltz," which preceded it. "Empty Hearts" ought to have had a workshop, where its faults might have been addressed before this full-blown but half-baked production.
Set, John Lee Beatty; costumes, Ann Roth, Bridget Kelly; lighting, Dennis Parichy; sound, Stewart Werner, Chuck London; production stage manager, Leslie Loeb; production manager, Jody Boese; concert sequence, Marsha Milgram Dodge; original theme, Robert Waldman. Artistic director, Tanya Berezin; managing director, Terrence Dwyer. Opened May 5, 1992.
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