Hopelessly Devoted

Unusual Acts of Devotion

by David Anthony Fox

Mark Garvin UP ON THE ROOF: Chick (Richard Thomas, left) and Leo (Michael Aronov) share a so-uncool-it's-cool moment on a Greenwich Village rooftop. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

I often wish I'd experienced Broadway's Golden Age, and not just The Great Works of Williams, O'Neill and Miller. I'm fascinated by things like Elmer Rice's Street Scene and Arthur Laurents' Time of the Cuckoo — lesser plays that nonetheless offered an intriguing cross-section of characters, and lovely opportunities for actors.

Terrence McNally's Unusual Acts of Devotion owes more than a little to both of those works — and like them, it's certainly not a great play. I'm not sure I'd even call it a good one. It's slow to kindle (more so in Leonard Foglia's snail-pace production), credibility-straining (and that's without considering a wacko subplot), sometimes inert and occasionally melodramatic. (Also, enough already with McNally's endless fussing about his favorite music.)

And yet — I liked it. By the end, I even felt a lump in my throat. What's more, I have no hesitation in recommending it — as long as you have a taste for old-fashioned sentimentality.

I do (sometimes, anyway), and I'm a sucker for the unlikely-groups-of-people-baring-their-souls kind of play. On a stifling summer evening in Greenwich Village, the tenants of an apartment come together on the roof. There's a cranky old lady; a lonely, middle-aged gay man; a recovering alcoholic whose jaded sophistication covers her neediness (oh, let's just say it — the Elaine-Stritch-in-the-'80s part); and the young married couple who seem blessed with the best of everything.

Need I tell you that they are connected in surprising ways? That the ending will include happiness and tears? I didn't think so.

And yet. If McNally's plotting is formulaic (it is), his way with dialogue remains fresh. So what if everybody is sexier, funnier, kinder and more articulate than they could possibly be in life — is that such a bad thing? So what if they're in love with a mythic New York? Aren't we all? I'm enchanted by a contemporary playwright who has the nerve to write something so uncynical and heart-on-his-sleeve. It's so uncool that it's cool.

Also, the cast includes Faith Prince, one of our greatest stage actors, a woman who embodies her characters with such luminous realness that she seems to be doing almost nothing. Aspiring performers: Watch Ms. Prince and learn. Michael Aronov is also excellent (and what a hottie!). Richard Thomas, all grown up now, has lovely moments, though not quite the right comic snap.

But you might say the rooftop is the star. Santo Loquasto's magnificent set, complete with multidimensional water tower and magically lit by Brian Nason, is an Edward Hopper painting come to glorious life. Such a work of scenic art should really be preserved forever. Till then, you can see it in McNally's Unusual Acts — which is not a bad thing at all.

(d_fox@citypaper.net)

Unusual Acts of Devotion | Through Nov. 23, Philadelphia Theatre Co. at Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St., 215-985-0420, philadelphiatheatrecompany.org