Collected Stories

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COLLECTED STORIES

Photo: MTC

Cititour.com Review
It’s not often that an actor gets to revisit a role, let alone perfect it, but such is the case with Linda Lavin in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s revival of Donald Margulies’ play, "Collected Stories." Starring in the play in Los Angeles, and repeating her performance for PBS years ago, Lavin now inhabits the role as if she’s found a permanent home.

From the onset, Lavin is one with her crusty professor/lauded scribe. Her portrayal of writer Ruth Steiner – from the way she futzes with numerous piles of research to a singular exasperated grunt which, when delivered, elicits howls from an appreciative audience – is a shinning example of the actor’s credo that “acting is reacting.”

Directed by Lynn Meadow with a keen eye for detail, Lavin and co-star, Sarah Paulson (HBO’s "Deadwood") dance their way around the issues at hand as the older, established writer mentors her protégé in Margulies’ dense but naturalistic work. Paulson as the younger, Lisa, does a measured job of taking the seemingly impressionable grad student from ‘wannabe’ to the darling of the New York Times Review of Books.
With a tip of the hat to "All About Eve," Margulies paints a modern picture of literary subterfuge. The talented and much lauded playwright, (he’s a Pulitzer prize-winner among other accolades) knows how to weave humor, especially for a New York audience, into his script. But the revival could still use additional edits.

Santo Loquasto’s West Village book-laden apartment set suits the elder writer to a tee, and Jane Greenwood’s costumes, especially the brown wrap that envelopes Lavin, provide appropriate definition to these two women.

One hopes that a revival offers something special and in "Collected Stories," Linda Lavin is breaking the mold with a performance of sheer perfection.

By Lesley Alexander


Visit the Site
http://www.mtc-nyc.org/

Cast
Linda Lavin, Sarah Paulson

Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/28/2010
Closing 6/13/2010


Theatre Info
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map



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