Whatever happened to the Straw Hat Circuit, where star vehicles lured in local audiences to bask in the glow of name performers they would otherwise never glimpse in the flesh? The genre is alive and okay, if not really well, in The Country House. The eternally divine Blythe Danner is Anna Patterson, an actress who’s respected, and even famous, but no longer in real demand. She has found it difficult to be comfortable in the Williamstown home where her daughter, the beautiful Kathy, lived and, just last year, died of cancer. With her is her granddaughter, Susie, a wise-cracking, extremely intelligent young woman who is miraculously immune to the theater bug. As a matter of fact, she hates actors as a group and refuses granny’s suggestion that she hang out with the apprentices at the Williamstown Theater Festival. Anna is going to star in Mrs. Warren’s Professionin three weeks, and Susie agrees to help her learn lines.
To her granddaughter’s dismay, Anna is incapable of having an audience of only two, Susie and Anna’s son Elliot Cooper. “Uncle Elliot” is a bit of a loser; his acting career has never taken off, and his love life is nonexistent. Anna has arranged to fill the house with guests, including the much-in-demand TV star, Michael Astor. She’s also invited her son-in-law, Walter Keegan who she feels has gotten over Kathy way too soon and too completely. Yet, she includes in the party Nell McNally, who turns out not only to be lovely, but also Elliot’s old crush. And, as the saying goes, mayhem ensues.
The cast in uniformly good; Danner has a luminescent quality which fills the production with more light than it might have with a less appealing actress. Sarah Steele is right on the money, to the degree that I’d enjoy seeing a sequel based on Susie Keegan. Kate Jennings Grant is beautiful and serene; any man in his right mind would fall for her. Eric Lange lets us see the longing that Elliot feels for her and delivers his wry lines with impeccable timing.
David Rasche brings a certain wistfulness to Walter, even as we can imagine the schlock fest of his “Truck Stop” series of movies. And Daniel Sunjata is, well, Daniel Sunjata: gorgeous, sexy, irresistible to the characters in the play and the audience alike. They are an accomplished and attractive group of players who really should be in a more substantial play.
The Country House is a nice place to visit; the set is gorgeous, just the right combination of shabby chic and elegance. The cast holds the attention of the audience with ease. And Ms. Danner is very much a First Lady. If, as she proclaims, “There are no Broadway stars... Not anymore. Oh, there are stars on Broadway, but they’re not Broadway stars,” more’s the pity.
