DEUCE, a play by Terrence McNally
Review by Laurie James
If you love tennis and would love to hear and see two retired, pioneer topnotch doubles partners talk about tennis, its history and heroines as well as to gain insight into their relationship, then you will love to see Deuce, the new Broadway play by Terrence McNally opening May 6 at the Music Box Theatre.
Or you might like to see two superb actors – perhaps the best in our contemporary theatre – bring everyday, stereotypical conversation to its most dynamic vitality uninterrupted for one hour and forty minutes.
Otherwise, don’t bother to pay for this piece that cannot in any way be considered a play in the traditional sense.
One wonders how this vignette would ever “make it” on Broadway without the skills of Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes who are the perfect duo deserving the standing ovation they received at the end of the show. It seems a shame because the crux of a good idea lies somewhere in this attempt of a play that could be created into exciting theatre.
Talk and accolade compose the evening. The two noble groundbreakers, who essentially have been publicly forgotten, sit center stage in a vast stadium watching two young female champs play tennis. While their heads bob back and forth following the explosive sounds of tennis balls served and received, they comment on the proficiencies of the players and choose their favorites, they reminisce about the games they themselves have won and lost, issues such as image, advertising and payment of players, their past and present dreams, their husbands, lovers, children, grandchildren, time and the changes it brings, their insecurities, and discover long held secrets about each other. Sometimes they swear which reveals they are tough, modern ladies indeed.
Playwright Terrance McNally has not been very clever in presenting information. Instead of story, incident or action, he has given his characters an array of narrative words which serve to stagnate the play. A middle-aged fan (Michael Mulheren) enters stage left and, for no reasons at all it seems, straight to the audience he outlines his admiration of these women and describes their achievements. Later he asks them for autographs and this offers the opportunity for the characters to read off the names of some historic women champs because the autograph book belonged to his father who had collected and filled pages with signatures of the famous. Periodically, in an upper level box, there appears a pair of TV commentators (Brian Haley; Joanna P. Adler) who conveniently announce all the tennis plays and read off bios of the players our two heroines watch. The play ends in the same place it began; the only physical movement onstage occurs as the two pioneers take the microphone to accept wild cheers from fans.
Director Michael Blakemore tried to liven it up with an imaginative scrim that is technically fascinating and visually creates a live stadium audience; however, this does not particularly enhance the static script and, in truth, upstages the brilliant performances of the two stars.
If you love tennis and would love to hear and see two retired, pioneer topnotch doubles partners talk about tennis, its history and heroines as well as to gain insight into their relationship, then you will love to see Deuce, the new Broadway play by Terrence McNally opening May 6 at the Music Box Theatre.
Or you might like to see two superb actors – perhaps the best in our contemporary theatre – bring everyday, stereotypical conversation to its most dynamic vitality uninterrupted for one hour and forty minutes.
Otherwise, don’t bother to pay for this piece that cannot in any way be considered a play in the traditional sense.
One wonders how this vignette would ever “make it” on Broadway without the skills of Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes who are the perfect duo deserving the standing ovation they received at the end of the show. It seems a shame because the crux of a good idea lies somewhere in this attempt of a play that could be created into exciting theatre.
Talk and accolade compose the evening. The two noble groundbreakers, who essentially have been publicly forgotten, sit center stage in a vast stadium watching two young female champs play tennis. While their heads bob back and forth following the explosive sounds of tennis balls served and received, they comment on the proficiencies of the players and choose their favorites, they reminisce about the games they themselves have won and lost, issues such as image, advertising and payment of players, their past and present dreams, their husbands, lovers, children, grandchildren, time and the changes it brings, their insecurities, and discover long held secrets about each other. Sometimes they swear which reveals they are tough, modern ladies indeed.
Playwright Terrance McNally has not been very clever in presenting information. Instead of story, incident or action, he has given his characters an array of narrative words which serve to stagnate the play. A middle-aged fan (Michael Mulheren) enters stage left and, for no reasons at all it seems, straight to the audience he outlines his admiration of these women and describes their achievements. Later he asks them for autographs and this offers the opportunity for the characters to read off the names of some historic women champs because the autograph book belonged to his father who had collected and filled pages with signatures of the famous. Periodically, in an upper level box, there appears a pair of TV commentators (Brian Haley; Joanna P. Adler) who conveniently announce all the tennis plays and read off bios of the players our two heroines watch. The play ends in the same place it began; the only physical movement onstage occurs as the two pioneers take the microphone to accept wild cheers from fans.
Director Michael Blakemore tried to liven it up with an imaginative scrim that is technically fascinating and visually creates a live stadium audience; however, this does not particularly enhance the static script and, in truth, upstages the brilliant performances of the two stars.
