Playwright Donald Margulies has long demonstrated his ability to devise compelling characters in dramatic situations (in Dinner with Friends, Sight Unseen, and Time Stands Still, among others). Margulies begins in similar fashion in his new play, Long Lost, but before he long loses his way.
David (Kelly AuCoin, of TV’s Billions) is a master-of-the-universe money manager in Manhattan, or rather in a dazzling aerie high above Manhattan. Even before he enters his office in semi-darkness, we notice a scruffy vagrant hiding in the shadows: long lost brother Billy (Lee Tergesen, of TV’s Oz), who hasn’t surfaced in ten years. It becomes quickly apparent that this is one of those “prodigal son” plays, in this case more literally a “prodigal older brother” play—although this prodigal older brother cannot return to his father’s house for reasons that soon become crystal clear. Rather, crystal meth clear.
The cast is rounded out by David’s wife, Molly (Annie Parisse, of Clybourne Park), a retired corporate lawyer now running a multi-million dollar charity for abused women and children, and the couple’s son, Jeremy (Alex Wolff), a college student who has just Amtraked in from Providence for the holiday break.
[Read Michael Sommers’ [★★★] review here.]
There is—surprise!—lots of distressed baggage between this near-hermit and his 40-something, highly successful sibling. Margulies draws compelling portraits of the two, but with a flaw: every piece of information we get begins to feel like it has been calculatingly planted for the playwright to explode later. If David tells Billy a secret, you can be sure that Billy will find a way to let the cat out of the proverbial bag, always with maximum damage. If we learn near the end of scene four that Molly has her own hidden secret, we can be sure that this will be viciously revealed by Billy in scene five.
Early on, the newly returned uncle regales his now-grown nephew with a hazy tale of a long-ago trip to a theme park during which he won a stuffed panda bear for the boy. Jeremy knows not to fall into the trap of believing his habitual liar of an uncle. Need we mention what Jeremy pulls out of his backpack in the final scene?
That final scene is another problem. The play seems, at least for most of its 90-minute length, to be about successful David, with the penultimate scene leaving us wrapped in the question of how the David/Molly conflict will resolve. After which both are sent off to their dressing rooms for the rest of the night, leaving at least some viewers puzzled when the lights fade away after a final nephew/uncle scene.
If there are problems with the writing, AuCoin, Wolff, Parisse, and Tergesen each make a good case for their characters. Manhattan Theatre Club, loyal producer of at least eight plays by Margulies, has provided a typically expert production under the direction of Daniel Sullivan (of Proof and several Margulies plays).
John Lee Beatty offers yet another New York apartment set that we’d love to live in. He turns these things out by the hundreds, always managing to outdo himself. In the multi-scene Long Lost, he provides surprise after surprise. The attention to detail is such that during one of the turntable transitions, you’ll catch a brief glimpse of an otherwise unseen breakfast room along the rear wall. Beatty just sort of throws these things in, with great effect. Kenneth Posner provides effective lighting, and the design team is rounded out by Toni-Leslie James. Incidental music comes from Daniel Kluger, orchestrator of the current Broadway Oklahoma!
At one point, Molly refers to how Uncle Billy delights in unexpectedly showing up and throwing grenades. The prodigal brother does, indeed, throw multiple grenades, spaced out across the play for increasingly devastating effect. But it doesn’t seem like Billy is throwing those grenades; it begins to feel, as the action moves on, that it’s the playwright who is hurling self-contrived grenades to push along his plot.
Long Lost opened June 4, 2019, at City Center Stage I and runs through June 30. Tickets and information: manhattantheatreclub.com
