Debra Messing Fires Up Birthday Candles

Photos: Joan Marcus                                                                                      

BY BRIAN SCOTT LIPTON

And the seasons, they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game

These brief poetic lyrics from Joni Mitchell’s 1966 hit “The Circle Game” provide the same insight into navigating the vagaries of life as the entire 90 minutes of Noah Haidle’s incredibly sentimental new play, “Birthday Candles,” now at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s American Airlines Theatre under Vivienne Benesch’s mostly uninspired direction. And it’s unlikely that even one of the many oft-repeated lines in this bloated script will be quoted anywhere nearly as often in high school yearbooks as Mitchell’s timeless chorus already has. Read Full Review