It really helps to know something about mid-20th century American history and golden age Hollywood in particular, to appreciate Are You Now or Have You Ever Been. First staged in 1972, Eric Bentley’s celebrated, although rarely seen docudrama is drawn from the testimonies of more than a dozen showbiz folk – actors, directors, writers – who for the most part reluctantly testified before the infamously witch-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C. Although the HUAC poked into other U.S. industries, its congressional investigation into alleged Communist infiltration of 1940s-50s Hollywood circles always blew up the biggest headlines.
When theatergoers enter the 299-seat City Center Stage 1, where Are You Now or Have You Ever Been has opened in a new production, they will see a blue-tinted collage of headlines from late 1940s newspaper and magazine stories detailing those times of the postwar Red Scare era. As a backdrop for designer Andrew Boyce’s relatively simple setting, the headlines will change as certain people testify. Furnished to suggest a meeting room in the Capitol, two long, elegant tables with chairs are set at flanking angles; one for the various witnesses, the other used by the committee chairman and his two aides.
One by one, 16 men and one woman will appear and, in some cases, reappear before the committee; their statements, testimony and exchanges with the chairman and staff ranging in varying emotional temperatures from below zero to boiling. Some people struggle to avoid self-incrimination. Others will flatly refuse to name their friends and coworkers as possible communists. A few will easily spew out names. Arthur Miller, Paul Robeson and Lillian Hellman are the appearing witnesses probably best known today, although the names of dozens of movie stars and celebrities never cease to drop during the 105-minute proceedings.
[Read Frank Scheck’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
An Off Broadway revival in 1978 employed a changing list of actors to assume Lillian Hellman’s redoubtable character during the show’s five-month stint, among them Colleen Dewhurst, Liza Minnelli and Tammy Grimes. Director Anna D. Shapiro develops the concept even further for this production. A core ensemble of six actors, several playing more than one person, will be joined at different times by other artists who will portray five major characters during the production’s projected run into September.
The leading quintet of the current cycle (through June 21) is comprised of Sally Murphy as Hellman, Billy Eugene Jones as singer-humanitarian Paul Robeson, Andrew McCarthy as Hollywood leading man Larry Parks, Jay O. Sanders as character actor Lionel Stander and David Krumholtz as writer-director Abe Burrows. In a word, they’re all fine.
Murphy and Jones capably deliver their characters’ most stirring remarks that still remain relevant today. McCarthy’s bright persona as Parks slowly wilts as his promising career withers. Sanders’ forceful Stander repeatedly spits out anger over blacklisting by association, or so he claims. Looking natty as Burrows, then enjoying success as a wisecracking maker of Guys and Dolls, Krumholtz stipples a finely layered portrait of a Broadway double-talker squirming in an unwelcome spotlight, sweating to be charming and evasive. Designer Johanna Pan provides spiffy business attire from those handsomely dressed days, speaking of which, expect to see most of these people smoking cigarettes.
Meanwhile, the core company depicts everybody else. Frederick Weller, often saturnine or pugnacious, renders the assertive likes of Miller, Sterling Hayden and Elia Kazan, among others. Known best as a musical comedy specialist, Brooks Ashmanskas poignantly traces film director Edward Dmytryk’s moral collapse under pressure into dejection as a misty-eyed informer. Steven Boyer vividly presents four different guys, especially bold in his fearless manner as the combative screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr., who defiantly went to prison. A silver-haired Michael McKean anchors the show with undeniable authority as the Southern-accented committee chairman, hunched over his microphone and looking like a big ole snapping turtle in a pin-striped suit, flanked by Jason Babinsky and Adam Kantor as his barracuda-like aides.
The production is proficiently staged by Shapiro, who makes strategic use of sharp designs by Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen (sound), Donald Holder (lighting) and Brittany Bland (projections) to bolster a drama that assumes an audience is already aware of some of this history. Pruned from Congressional testimony, Bentley’s play otherwise details sparse information for viewers today regarding the significance of these generally forgotten people – Larry Parks, anyone? – or the background of those times. Spectators who know or care relatively little about the last century may find the play to be a static, talky experience despite the excellent performances and staging.
Let’s not comment upon this docudrama’s current relevance or contrast to some of the pointless Congressional investigations of nowadays, but should some of the many names dropped in this review mean anything to you, then Are You Now or Have You Ever Been is likelier to keep your interest than people who haven’t a clue.
