Theater Review—

David Margulies Is Brilliant

In A Play That May Not Be For Everyone

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN — The first thing you notice at Long Wharf’s production of Clifford Odets’ anguished 1930’s drama Rocket To The Moon is Andrew Lieberman’s set: a suite of dentist office rooms as seen through the windows from outside the building. For the nearly 2½ hours that the play lasts, the set is silently rotating, at a pace by turns infinitesimal and then faster.

In part this may represent the inexorable passage of time on the dismal treadmill of the occupants’ lives (it speeds up to indicate the desire of the beleaguered hero, Dr Benjamin Stark, to somehow jump off the merry-go-round). In addition it could be to ensure that no audience view is perpetually blocked by a window frame (at one point I found myself craning my neck trying to figure out which woman was sitting on the waiting room couch lambasting him).

It is a hot summer in the early years of the Great Depression. The suite of rooms are a dreary place, where every day feels like Monday, but at least – as Ben tells his wife in a rare burst of assertiveness – a man’s office is his castle. While there are few patients besides friends and family (who don’t pay), at least he gets to hang out with fellow dentist Phil Cooper, and foot doctor “Frenchy” Jensen, who occupy adjoining offices.

Although he grew up in a Philadelphia orphanage we learn that Ben was once a lively, promising fellow – a brilliant student, first in his class at dental school – he played tennis! Now, nearing forty, he is trapped in a toxic ten-year marriage to an icily controlling shrew who keeps him in a continuing state of guilt over his inability to give her a more fulfilling life.

According to her estranged father Mr Prince (whom only Ben calls Papa), Belle Stark is a chip off her mother’s block: “the mother ate sour grapes and the daughter’s teeth are set on edge.” And while Mr Prince, who is a rich man from his daring investments in the stock market, has offered to set Ben up in a new, modern uptown practice, Belle won’t allow it, claiming it is too risky in the current economic climate.

Into this situation comes Cleo Singer, Ben’s newly hired secretary, a twenty-year-old dreamer looking like Judy Garland about to step onto the yellow brick road. Pert and sassy, spinning yarns about her wealthy family background, her membership on the Olympic figure skating team, and her mother the opera singer, Cleo needs this $15-a-week job, but she is not about to be intimidated by Mrs Stark, Mr Prince or anyone else.

Cleo flirts with all the guys but she is looking for true love and she sees Ben as the best possibility. Can Ben do as his father-in-law advises, shake off his stodgy cautious sense of righteousness and take some risks? A fling with Cleo? A rocket to the moon? And therein lies the play…

The best thing about this play is David Margulies in the role of the bon vivant Mr Prince. He is so charming and funny that you want him on stage all the time. Conversely, Christina Kirk, looking like an elegantly austere Grace Kelly, makes Belle Stark so hateful that it seems like a no-brainer for Ben to leave her. Ms Kirk is a good actress but listening to her is like hearing chalk scraping on a blackboard.

Along with – or as part of – the love vs responsibility conflict that the play tackles, it seemed to be saying a lot about the role of fathers in a dysfunctional era. Even as Uncle Sam was failing the millions of Americans trapped in poverty, Phil Cooper drinks too much because he can’t afford medical care for his family, Mr Prince is cut off from his daughter, and Cleo invents a mythical father to fill the void in her life. Meanwhile, Ben the orphan struggles to carry everyone else on his slumping shoulders.

Some people really liked the play, especially Clifford Odets’ snappy dialogue and the sense of 1930s realism. Others looked like they were pretending to listen to it on the radio.

You have to make up your own mind on this one.