Star turns can make or break a production.Two recent Broadway openings feature big-name leads, but their effects on their respective shows are startlingly different. In Burn This, a mismatched Adam Driver and Keri Russell drag down Lanford Wilson’s supposedly explosive romance to the ho-hum level. However, in Hillary and Clinton, Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow make Lucas Hnath’s intriguing behind-the-scenes political premise into a gripping portrait of a complex marriage.
Hnath’s tight and fascinating script focuses on Hillary Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential bid and how her heavily baggaged union with the former chief executive skewered her career in public service. The very title of the play indicates their unequal footing.
The setting is a drab New Hampshire hotel suite (Chloe Bamford provides the stark setting) as Hillary (Metcalf at her incandescent jittery best) bemoans her floundering campaign for the Democratic nomination against rising star Barack Obama (played with quiet authority by Peter Francis James). Unexpectedly, her charismatic, troublesome spouse Bill (Lithgow in a masterful turn) shows up ready to dispense advice and move cash into her depleted coffers.
In a snappy, idea-packed 90 minutes, Hnath not only addresses a plethora of contemporary concerns about our body politic (personality vs. policy, story vs. reality, substances vs. flash) but also, as he did with Ibsen’s Nora and Torvald in A Doll’s House, Part 2, creates an incisive dissection of a famous couple’s push-pull connection. The playwright adds layers of his own to the pair’s very public history and casts a cynical eye on how we elect our leaders.
In examining the turning point of Mrs. Clinton’s quest for the White House in her own right, he offers many uncomfortable observations on sexism, the power of the press, and the shallowness of the American voter. In a particularly brilliant monologue, Hillary explains how her “story” as a candidate has been distorted by Bill’s infidelities and, because of his personal charisma, he emerged unscathed while she got the public’s animosity for not divorcing him.
Metcalf, who starred as Nora in Hnath’s Doll’s House sequel, once again gives new life and blood to a figure we thought we knew. Her Hillary is vulnerable and troubled as well as razor smart and calculating. Neither she nor Lithgow, in an equally multi-dimensional performance, stoop to imitation but pursue their objectives with a laser-like specificity. Lithgow captures Bill Clinton’s easy charm, ruthless ambition, and reckless narcissism.
The real triumph of this dual act and the spark that fires up the engine of the play is the love between these characters the actors convey and how it drives their actions despite the obstacles it creates for their career goals. Even as they coolly discuss ending their marriage for Hillary’s political advantage, you can still feel their mutual affection.
Joe Matello delivers his usual economical, unfussy staging with several inspired moments. Watch as Bill literally steps over a supine Hillary to get at her recalcitrant campaign manager (an intense Zak Orth), indicating he’s willing to walk all over his wife to dominate an argument. It’s a funny, clever piece of business in a smart, entertaining comedy featuring two of our brightest stage stars.
