The Blues Are Running
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Cast: Paul Giamatti (Pyle/Boo/Johnny), Marcus Giamatti (Stile/Mickey/JoJo).
Brothers Paul and Marcus Giamatti play three couples visiting Central Park late one night. One pair is actually never seen, but heard: The ghostly voices of two "Godot"-like tramps just murdered in the park serve as sort-of spectral emcees, introducing first one set of characters and then, post-intermission, another pair. Despite some self-mocking --- the disembodied voices call themselves pretentious --- the faux-Beckett dialogue is cringe-making.
The first act focuses on two old friends, Boo (Paul Giamatti) and Mickey (Marcus Giamatti), buddies since grade school. Mickey has been summoned by a panic-stricken Boo, whose wife has just accused him of being "queer" and secretly in love with his old pal Mickey. Much silliness and bluster later, Mickey is the one who comes out of the closet, a contrived development that doesn't convey a second of truth. Nor does it have much point: a coming-out melodrama in the '90s? How quaint.
Act two isn't much better. The brothers Giamatti now play a pair of Jersey-accented hit men --- same park, different bench --- waiting for their target and getting into the type of philosophical debate that Quentin Tarantino might have left on the cutting-room floor, stuff about hunters and prey and the circumstances under which life is worth living. "Will you shut up, please!" one character tells the chattier one, the best question of the evening.
One must assume that at least some of the production's artificiality --- the staccato, Mamet-like dialogue, the vintage gangster attire (wide lapels, fedora hats) of the hit men --- is intended by director Melvin Bernhardt, but that doesn't make it any more appealing. The Giamattis never seem like anything other than what they are: actors chewing their way through a stretching exercise.
Set, James Youmans; costumes, Jess Goldstein; lighting, Kenneth Posner; sound, Raymond D. Schilke; production stage manager, Mark Cole; casting, Nancy Piccione. Artistic director, Lynne Meadow; executive producer, Barry Grove. Opened Nov. 3, 1996, at the City Center/Stage II. Reviewed Nov. 1; 150 seats; $ 32. Running time: 1 HOUR, 45 MIN.
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