With master thespian Ralph Fiennes starring as master builder Robert Moses, you don't fret much about numerous secondary cast substitutions particularly when they're as good as as those on Saturday's matinee performance of Straight Line Crazy. David Hare's very talky play gets a little too preachy in the second act but the dynamics-of-power ballet performed by Fiennes and bourbon-swilling Danny Webb as New York Governor Al Smith in the first left me as giddy as I ever get in the theater. Too bad that Fiennes is forced to pantomime the youthful vigor of the ultimately reviled man who probably did more good than bad. Assholes can get public works done, after all. Look no further than Andrew Cuomo for proof of that. Hare, or maybe Moses himself, gets bonus points for articulating the appeal and challenges of open-water swimming, which led directly to the establishment of Jones Beach State Park where I picked up the habit half a century later. Usually getting there by car, of course!
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| 2014 |
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