Review: Director Anne Kauffman Finally Hits Broadway With Scott McPherson's MARVIN'S ROOM

Appropriately, much was made of the fact that in the recently concluded Broadway season, two major American Playwrights, Pulitzer and Drama Desk Award winners Paula Vogel and Lynn Nottage, finally made their Broadway debuts with, respectively, INDECENT and SWEAT (which won Nottage her second Pulitzer during its Broadway run).

Now, after thirteen years and eighteen directing credits for major Off-Broadway companies such as Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard, Lincoln Center Theater and The New York Theatre Workshop, another accomplished New York stage talent, Anne Kauffman, takes her overdue Broadway bow with Roundabout's emotionally rich revival of Scott McPherson's 1990 darkly comic drama MARVIN'S ROOM.

After premiering at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, followed by a successful run at Hartford Stage, MARVIN'S ROOM's Off-Broadway Playwrights Horizons production transferred to a commercial run at the Minetta Lane and won the author Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. But despite its initial popularity, and a 1997 film version that starred Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwen Verdon and Hume Cronyn, the play has fallen into relative obscurity. Perhaps a major reason for that is that two months after the New York production closed, McPherson died of complications caused by AIDS, at age 33.

They play he left behind was inspired by his experiences with older relatives and with his romantic partner, who was dying from AIDS as the play first headed to New York. It deals with the boundaries of family commitment and responsibility long after the family relationship has dissolved.

The Marvin in question is seen and heard only as a blurry, groaning bedridden figure far upstage. He is the father of 40-year-old Bessie (Lili Taylor), who has been caring for him since his stroke twenty years ago. More mobile, but with chronic back pains, is Bessie's Aunt Ruth (sweetly scattered Celia Weston), also in her care.

But when Bessie develops leukemia and requires bone marrow donors, she calls on her long-estranged younger sister Lee (Janeane Garofalo), who arrives for an awkward reunion with her two sons. 17-year-old Hank (Jack DiFalco), has been spending time in a mental hospital after burning down their house and has no intention of going through the medical procedure for a total stranger. His bookish, younger brother Charlie (Luca Padovan) thinks the opportunity sounds "neat."

Garofalo's knack for flat, unemotional humor is well-utilized when matched with Taylor's textured portrayal of a woman who has spent her entire adult life putting the needs of others before her own. The bonding of the two goes beyond family obligation when it becomes apparent that Bessie can get through to Lee's sons ways she hasn't learned.

Frequently, when an Off-Broadway success is played in a Broadway house, the question of theatrical intimacy arises. Despite its sparks of quirky humor, MARVIN'S ROOM is a small piece that intends to draw audiences in with its gentle approach to emotions. But instead of pushing the production forward and framing it tightly, designer Laura Jellinek's set takes up the far reaches of the American Airlines Theatre's stage, shrinking the impact of the fine ensemble's performances.

But this is one misstep in an otherwise satisfying production. In many ways, MARVIN'S ROOM is very much a product of its time, when the AIDS epidemic meant more and more people, especially in the theatre community, were dealing with the mortality of loved ones being taken at frightfully young ages. But its sincerity and humor provides comforting warmth.