OF MICE AND MEN at the Longacre Theatre

(Seen April 18, 2014)

 

When it comes to John Steinbeck's  OF MICE AND MEN,  I have to admit that I have a bias.  I have been on intimate terms with the play (and novel) since 1957 --- when I wrote the book and lyrics for a musical version.  I was fortunate enough to meet with Steinbeck on a number of occasions, and still have a four-page letter he wrote me about his visions of the four leading characters --- George, Lennie, Curley's Wife, and Candy.

I think Steinbeck wrote a wonderful play about the lives and frustrations faced by his characters in their struggles to find a better life.  But like Burns' "best laid plans" and Shakespeare's "how all things do conspire against us", it just wasn't meant to be! 

I think director Anna Shapiro has missed an opportunity to make this production into a wrenching experience for her audience, as well as for her competent cast.

I found Chris Dowd's interpretation  of the simple-minded Lennie both superficial and caricature-ish, with a  pseudo-California accent and exaggerated gestures.  True, the play is melodramatic, but there are many true moments and levels of reality that have been missed.  

Because of that lack, my attention was called to minor things which I might not have noticed if I was emotionally involved in the action.  So maybe I'm nit-picking.  Ed Norton's Candy is too robust for the character;  and the apparent decision not to give him some prosthetic for his missing hand by having him hide his hand under a long-sleeved shirt, doesn't work ---especially when he open the bunk-house door with his missing hand!

And Shapiro loses some "ooh, aah" moments by having Lennie's new pup as a prop rather than a puppy. And her staging of the murder, when Lennie accidently breaks Curley's Wife's neck while trying to keep her quiet, seems like a love scene gone astray!  

We are given little motivation for George to personally kill Lennie before the posse finds him.  Candy's regret at letting someone else kill his beloved dog, is replayed here for George to have to do it himself.

And in the final moments of the play, she has George back-up across the stage to fire the pistol at Lennie -- breaking the bond the two characters have with one another,  in their final moments when Lennie visualizes his dream of a place of their own.