The American Plan

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THE AMERICAN PLAN

Photo: Carol Rosegg

Cititour.com Review
There's something touchingly poetic about the Manhattan Theatre Club's revival of Richard Greenberg's The American Plan. With its aquatic motif delicately echoing the ebb and flow of the fragility of the human spirit, David Grindley has directed a luminous production but not a flawless one.

The emotionally scarred Lili, played with exceptional finesse by Lily Rabe, is locked in a love/hate relationship with her overprotective mother, Eva, the unflinching Mercedes Ruehl. When we meet them they are summering across the lake from a major Catskills resort hotel in 1960. From the lake emerges an Adonis of sorts, Nick, a hunky candidate for a future husband if the bonds of mother and daughter, and the secrets which infest the entire group of characters, don't destroy them first.

The performances are unequivocally sublime. Ruehl, saves Eva from a becoming the stereotype of a German Jewish refugee and plays her with fortitude and an earthy charm. Rabe is the epitome of a delicate creature. Kieran Campion, as Nick, is more than just a pretty face.

Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain) has a wonderful facility for poetic dialogue which sounds natural, and often amusing, while revealing his characters' soul. One character acknowledges that "happiness exists, but it's for other people."

But the long pauses here come too often, and the play becomes more of a snapshot of moments than a continuous whole. It's as if a painting has been brought to life and the characters have suddenly emerged without being fully formed. The result is a visually alluring production, but a play that never quite makes it on dry land.

By Lesley Alexander


Visit the Site
http://www.mtc-nyc.org/current-season/americanplan/landing.htm

Cast
Mercedes Ruehl, Lily Rabe, Benjamin Eakeley, Austin Lysy, Brenda Pressley

Open/Close Dates
Opening 1/2/2009
Closing 3/22/2009

Box Office
212-239-6200

Theatre Info
Pershing Square Signature Center
480 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
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