[ssba]
FRONT DOOR OPEN
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Greenway Court Theatre
Through December 13
Eleanor (Joanna Miles) the agoraphobic senior citizen in Tom Baum’s family drama, is a paranoid lady. Not only is she afraid to leave her house: she’s also terrified that home invaders might come to do her ill. The suburban domicile she shares with her husband Douglas (David Selby), a surgeon, is fortified with locks, chains, and a sophisticated alarm system that electronically sounds “Front door open!” on the rare occasion it isn’t shut and bolted tight.
But the alarm bleeps again and again on the day Eleanor’s daughter Gretchen (Anna Nicholas) and granddaughter Thalia (Lizzy Rich) show up unannounced. They arrive not from down the block or across the city, but from distant California where they’ve been living with Gretchen’s unemployed screenwriter husband Larry. Douglas disapproved of Larry when she married him, and in this case Father knew best. Gretchen has been supporting her ungrateful spouse for years.
Now the marriage is kaput. Gretchen has lost her job and her home and has decided to relocate to the East and stay with her folks, even though the controlling Douglas kicked her out years ago. Nor has she phoned her mom to say she’s on her way.
An estranged adult child turning up out of the blue might be an acceptable melodramatic conceit if it were indeed the only one. Baum’s script, however, fairly bursts with overwrought concepts. Besides Eleanor’s pathological fears and Gretchen’s problems with husband, dad, and daughter, it turns out that Douglas, whose hands have begun to shake, is in crisis mode as well.
Add to this, hidden secrets eventually emerge about this ostensibly harmonious marriage and all told, there’s arguably several seasons’ worth of soap opera crowbarred into this dramedy’s scant 90 minutes.
Baum, a veteran of TV and film, writes convincing everyday dialogue that might have bolstered a proficient ensemble, even with the unsound storytelling. But only Rich as a typically snarky but good-hearted teenager makes a memorable impression – not because her portrayal is unusual or deep but because at least she’s credible, if only in a conventional way.
Nicholas does her best with the implausible deck that’s been dealt her by the production but she comes up against two major obstacles: the stagey and insular performances of the two leads, Selby and Miles.
Selby’s opinionated patriarch is quirky and attention-getting, but it’s all about projecting that presence out to the audience, instead of making the drama work for everyone on stage. In kitchen sink realism you really do have to do that. Miles, on the other hand, underplays her role, and when she looks lost, it’s not because her character’s teetering on the brink of dementia.
Some production values are also slipshod. Thalia’s tattoos appear to have been scrawled on with thick eyebrow pencil, or black magic marker, while the barking of Eleanor’s dog, heard offstage throughout, is one of the tinniest and most artificial sound effects I’ve heard in a while (sound design by Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski).
Where was the director Asaad Kelada in all this? Like Baum, Selby and Miles, he’s been in the business of show a very long time. Whatever was he thinking?
Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Boulevard, W. Hlywd.: Fri- Sat. 8:00 p.m.; Sun. 7:00 p.m.; through December 13. www.greenwaycourt.org or (323) 673-0544 Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
