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THE HOUSE IN TOWNMitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center; (212) 239-6200.
THIS new effort from the prolific and stylistically diverse playwright Richard Greenberg ("Take Me Out," "Three Days of Rain") tells a tale of marital discord set in 1929 on Manhattan's Millionaire Row, or what is now merely 23rd Street between Ninth and 10th avenues.
But, while "The House in Town" again demonstrates the playwright's facility for incisive dialogue and provocative situations, it's far from convincing, coming across as ersatz Henry James as filtered through 1940s Warner Brothers.
There's no shortage of excellent acting on display in Doug Hughes' impeccably mounted staging of the piece, which deals with the tensions between wealthy Jewish store owner Sam Hammer (Mark Harelik) and his blueblood wife, Amy (Jessica Hecht).
The 40-something Amy is desperate to have a child, to the point of arranging sexual assignations between herself and her reluctant husband. But Sam seems far more interested in business, and in one of his hapless male clerks (Dan Bittner) in particular.
The businessman's slavish devotion to his handsome young employee invites apprehension, first on the part of the young man and then from Amy, who begins to suspect her husband of unsavory ideas. Watching these events with growing concern are the couple's best friends, a doctor (Armand Schultz), whose examination of Amy results in dramatic news, and his down-to-earth, plain-spoken wife (Becky Ann Baker).
You can feel Greenberg straining to provide a contemporary resonance to his tale, the culmination of which reaches melodramatic proportions. But ultimately, the characters and situations come across as an awkward attempt to deliver a modern equivalent to the sort of period drama in which bold themes needed to be expressed through subtle euphemisms.
The most effective element of the production is the fierce performance by Hecht (the beloved ex-wife in the film "Sideways"), who inhabits her character with a powerful intensity that nearly manages to give the proceedings dramatic credibility.
Her guttural growl when Amy finally deduces the reason for her husband's strange behavior packs more of a punch than anything else onstage.
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