Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SUSAN AND GODMint Theater, 311 W. 43rd St.; (212) 315-0231. Through July 16.
THE Mint Theater concludes its season of neglected plays by American women playwrights with its resurrection of "Susan and God" by Rachel Crothers.
Rachel who, you may ask? Merely a writer and author who during the course of her long career (1906-37) had nearly 30 of her plays open on Broadway. It's a track record unlikely to be equaled.
This effort, which originally starred Gertrude Lawrence and is best known for the 1940 movie version starring Joan Crawford, doesn't represent the Mint at its excavating best. There is, however, an undeniable relevance to the work, which satirized the influence of the Oxford Group, a religious movement of the '20s and '30s that inspired, among other things, Alcoholics Anonymous.
Set in a genteel country home, the play depicts the sudden religious conversion of a society matron named Susan (Leslie Hendrix), who has returned from a European sojourn evangelized to the powers of faith and love.
With her newfound spirituality and wisdom, she tries to sort out the emotional and romantic complications of her well-heeled friends - at the same time, neglecting her own family, including her alcoholic husband (Timothy Deenihan) and embittered young daughter (Jennifer Blood).
While the play is often amusing in its sendup of the then trendy spiritual movement, it doesn't have the same satirical crackle today that it must have had upon its premiere. Not helping matters is director Jonathan Bank's brittle production, which plays up its less-than-scintillating drawing-room comedy aspects.
The legendarily charming Lawrence no doubt compensated for the flaws in the original production, but Hendrix - best known as the ubiquitous medical examiner in the "Law & Order" franchise - seems to be channeling Katharine Hepburn, only none too successfully. Lacking the charm necessary to make the character's proselytizing palatable, her Susan is even more alienating than the playwright intended her to be.
Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
