Terms of Endearment
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Cititour.com Review
I wish I had more endearing terms for Dan Gordon’s stage adaptation “Terms of Endearment” than faithful or well-meaning. But for all its virtues – including a trio of fine performances – the reality of the production making its American premiere at 59E59 is that it could never top James L. Brooks’ multi-Oscar winning 1983 film. And I honestly am not sure what was the point in trying when anyone can just download or rent the film. (Mind you, if you’ve never seen the film or don’t know the plot, you might be better off to stop reading now.)
The story, which ultimately reduces even the hardest-hearted theatergoers to tears, focuses primarily on the close-yet-somewhat-difficult relationship between sharp-tongued, starchy Aurora Greenway (Molly Ringwald) and her headstrong daughter Emma (Hannah Dunne), who marries the feckless professor Flap (an unimpressive Denver Milord) out of what appears to be a mixture of love and spite.
When Emma and Flap move to Iowa, the long-widowed Aurora takes a chance on lust – or is it love – with her next-door neighbor, a womanizing, paunchy ex-astronaut named Garrett Breedlove (Jeb Brown, who almost manages to live up to film predecessor Jack Nicholson). To their own surprise, they manage to wear down, albeit not completely, each other’s considerable defenses.
Sadly, Gordon’s sleek adaptation (the show runs under two hours) does deprive us of one of the film’s great scenes: when the now-married Emma meets Sam, the man with whom she eventually has an affair, in a supermarket. (Here, Emma simply relates the incident to visiting best friend Patsy, well played by Jessica DiGiovanni.) Moreover, director Michael Parva can’t make the work feel particularly cinematic, with David L. Arsenault’s multi-purpose unit set being at best workmanlike.
He does, however, get fine work from his leading ladies. If for some reason, you haven’t seen Ringwald since her John Hughes days as America’s teenage sweetheart, you’re in for a bit of shock. Tall, composed, utterly mature, Ringwald brings a sort of regal dignity to Aurora. She doesn’t quite have enough bite to make some of Aurora’s carefully chosen barbs sting as strongly as they should, but she melts beautifully, and her show of maternal ferocity when faced with Emma’s unfeeling doctor (the fine John C. Vennema) is quite wonderful.
Dunne, who appears on the Amazon series “Mozart in the Jungle,” proves to be a chip off the family block. (Her parents are actors Griffin Dunne and Carey Lowell.) Her Emma is never less than believable, and you can just feel how her mother’s constant put-downs have resulted in the sort of low self-esteem that would allow her to settle for a second-rate marriage. Yet, you never doubt for a second that Dunne’s Emma has Aurora’s strength deep inside her, which she musters in the famous scene where she “writes” a letter to her three children on her deathbed.
Like the film, the play has both tears and laughter. It just lacks transcendence.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.59e59.org/moreinfo.php?showid=269
Cast
Molly Ringwald, Hannah Dunne, Jeb Brown, Denver Milord, John C. Vennema, Jessica DiGiovanni
Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/29/2016
Closing 12/11/2016
Box Office
212-279-4200
Theatre Info
59E59 Theaters
59 East 59th St
New York, NY 10022
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