Imaginary Friends is novelist/screenwriter Nora Ephron's first foray into theater. Her screenwriting talents are clearly shown in this drama with music. Ephron brings many of the techniques of film to the stage, including close-ups and framing of scenes either with curtains or lighting. The play opens depicting playwright Lillian Hellman (Swoosie Kurtz) and novelist, book and theatrical critic, Mary McCarthy (Cherry Jones), after their deaths in the `80s. They reminisce -- though usually as enemies. Thus, they chronicle the high and low points of each other's lives within the context of their own personal biases. The dialogue is crisp, filled with barbs and sharp repartee, and almost too many one-liners.
Ephron treats the stage much like a camera lens, revealing just a hint of a childhood house, a section of a cocktail lounge, or a simple table suggesting a dining room. No doubt director Jack O'Brien added much of the flair and almost abstract feel of the set.
Imaginary Friends is billed as a play with music. While music usually adds to the story in a musical, in this production, it comments on the story and, occasionally, even counterpoints the tale. The fourth wall, separating audience from talent, is destroyed immediately. The first act, after slowish start, moves from vignette to vignette rapidly, with talented Kurtz and Jones trading barbs. Ephron's lines come to exciting life as they move effortlessly through a time-line that begins shortly after Hellman's 1905 birth. McCarthy, born seven years and a day later, never lets Hellman forget that Hellman is the oldest. Their performances are enhanced by Harry Groener's many characterizations of men that moved in and out of their hectic lives. The large cast of actors, singers and dancers gives the production both a contrast and a complement of the combatant duo. Alas, the second act, to quote a song from City of Angels: "It Needs Work." Things grind to a halt with an overly long, court-styled vignette of writer Muriel Gardiner, played by Anne Pitoniak, scandalizing Hellman's story of "Julia" from her 1973-74 memoir, "Pentimento."
The Globe's production includes an array of video projections, live video, and highly effective sound effects. San Diego is the tryout city for the show, destined for a Broadway opening soon after closing here in November. Be assured this is a work in progress. You will be seeing a somewhat different Imaginary Friends than I did.
