The elements are all there for a touching, provocative evening of theater as the sad life of grotesquely deformed John Merrick, "The Elephant Man," is recounted in Bernard Pomerance's famous play. What unfolds at the Royale Theater, however, is a clunky, remote affair, with five Brechtian touches for every two that actually work. Billy Crudup's sweetly low-key Merrick lacks both agony and grandeur; Rupert Graves's prickly Doctor Treves is thoroughly uninvolving, particularly in the play's verbose second half where the character evolves from moral certitude to existential confusion. Kate Burton, so blandly matter-of-fact in this season's Hedda Gabler, puts her no-nonsense charm to better use here as the merciful Mrs. Kendal. She's the only one who really projects past the footlights and registers with the viewer.
