Andy Forrest and Dan Frischman (Photo by Heidi Appe)
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Two Roads Theatre
Through April 20
Although he wrote it in 1942 and set it in 1928, Eugene O’Neil’s Hughie did not premiere in the United States until 1964, six years after the playwright’s death. (There were, however, two prior European productions, one in Sweden at the Royal Dramatic Theatre and one in Britain at the Theatre Royal, Bath.)
Directed by Jose Quintero, the American premiere featured Jason Robards, Jr. as a garrulous, low-level conman in a one-sided conversation with a taciturn disinterested night clerk at a seedy hotel. Since then, any number of celebrated actors have undertaken this role: Ben Gazzara, Al Pacino, Forest Whitaker on Broadway in 2024 and Brian Dennehy in a turn at Geffen Playhouse in 2018. Local audiences might also have caught director Frederique Michel’s production at City Garage in Santa Monica last year.
It’s easy to understand why this role attracts actors, given the richness of the lead character, his colorful dialogue and the play’s themes that illustrate so well the desperation and self-duplicity common in humanity.
In the current offering, directed by Bill Sehres at Two Roads Theatre in North Hollywood, Dan Frischman plays Erie Smith, a boastful narcissist, woman-despiser and inveterate gambler who for years has patronized this establishment whenever he was in the neighborhood. Over time Erie had developed a relationship with the hotel’s long-term night clerk, a family man named Hughie as different from the oleaginous Erie as anyone could be.
With Hughie, Erie loved to strut his stuff, to boast of his exploits with countless “dolls,” — by his account always ready to yield to his lustful whims. He also waxed on about horse races and his skill at cards, and played them with Hughie, who of course always lost.
But now Hughie has died, and in his place is a stranger (Andy Forrest, alternating with Scott MacDonell) who has zero interest in Erie’s chatter — but his job is to remain at the desk, so he’s forced to listen. The sound of a garbage truck or a siren outside on the street evokes more reaction from the clerk than all of Erie’s boasting.
Essentially a monologue, the success of Hughie is all about the performer projecting the disparity between the image his character puts forth to the world and the desperate inner loneliness that drives him — a drive that compels him to seek the admiration of a working man who lives by society’s rules and whom he can deprecate to others and himself. In Frischman’s performance, there’s an appreciable moment toward the end when he realizes this. It comes to him mid-spiel, like a bolt from the blue. And there is a brief pause as he considers it and acknowledges it to himself — a moment easily the evening’s most poignant.
But too much of what we otherwise view in this staging is tied to externals: physical quirks and mannerisms that amount to a portrait of a Damon Runyon type individual. This approach is underscored by the performer’s tendency to speak too often directly out to the audience, likely a directorial choice.
As the unfortunate recipient of Erie’s diatribe, the bowtied bespectacled Forrest certainly looks the part. And scenic designer Katherine Bulovic’s seen-better-days interior is absolutely pitch perfect: the threadbare carpet, the shabby vinyl upholstery, the drab looking clock, the palm with its withering fronds, and (such a nice detail) the battered copy of a 1928 World Almanac that rests on the scratched old wooden table to the side. But there are also the pretty vintage sconces, the coral-rose color of the walls and the ornate chandelier that speak of better days. It’s an artful frame for a story whose essence transcends any period trappings.
Two Roads Theatre, 4348 Tujunga Ave. Studio City. Opens Sat., March 29; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 7 pm; thru April 20. www.tworoadstheater.com Running time: approximately 55 minutes
