Review: THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE Suffers from Congestion at Lyric Stage in Boston

Written by Charles Busch; directed by Larry Coen; scenic design, Matt Whiton; costume design, Mallory Frers; lighting design, Chris Bocchiaro; sound design, Jack Staid; production stage manager, Nerys Powell

Cast:

Marina Re as Marjorie; Joel Colodner as Ira; Ellen Colton as Frieda; Caroline Lawton as Lee; Zaven Ovian as Mohammed

Performances and Tickets:

Now through December 20, Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon St., Boston, Mass.; tickets range from $25-$63 and are available online at www.lyricstage.com or by calling the Box Office at 617-585-5678.

Perhaps when Charles Busch's THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE transferred from the Manhattan Theatre Club to Broadway in 2000, its humor seemed more outlandish than it does today. After all, it garnered great reviews and ran for 777 performances before becoming a staple of regional theaters across the country. It undoubtedly also didn't hurt that the central role of the middle-aged Jewish woman suffering a manic menopausal meltdown was played first by Linda Lavin and then by Valerie Harper. Both are expert at the art of making the absurd seem normal, and their ability to toss off understated one-liners with laser-like precision is a skill that's born, not taught.

In the production currently running at the Lyric Stage Company in Boston, there's no such finesse in the performance of Marina Re as Marjorie. In fact, there's no finesse on stage at all as the usually reliable director Larry Coen has led his cast of five to proceed full throttle from the opening bell to the final blackout. The result is an exhausting race through a muddle of plot twists and turns that don't really take us anywhere of consequence. The play is as much of a mishegas as Marjorie's meandering midlife. By the end the question still lingers: is that all there is?

THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE was Busch's first venture into mainstream theater. Known previously as a drag performer and for writing and starring in madcap satires like Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Psycho Beach Party, he knows where the funny is when it comes to lampooning kitschy cultural tropes. When it comes to more urbane comedy, though, not so much.

THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE charts the maelstrom that ensues when unfulfilled dilettante Marjorie (Marina Re) has had enough of her meaningless life as a museum goer and wife of the self-acclaimed healthcare savior of the poor, allergist Ira Taub (Joel Colodner). Depressed and perhaps even suicidal, she mopes around her spacious Upper West Side apartment in an unkempt robe until one day she is visited by a mysterious and sexy long lost childhood friend, Lee (Caroline Lawton). With each ensuing lunch date and sojourn to an exhibition with the world-traveling and name-dropping Lee, Marjorie gains purpose and renewed vigor. The trouble is no one else has ever seen Lee - not Ira, not Marjorie's constantly kvetching mother Frieda (Ellen Colton), not even the Iraqi doorman Mohammed (Zaven Ovian). Each begins to question whether or not Lee even exists until finally Marjorie herself thinks she may be going mad.

Just as the delightful possibilities of Marjorie having an "imaginary friend" unfold, however, the plot shifts and momentum comes to a screeching halt. First Lee seduces both Marjorie and Ira and then Mohammed suggests that she is some sort of terrorist. Ultimately the heretofore squabbling family band together against this newly anointed common enemy and seem to be destined to live happily ever after. Who knows? Maybe even Frieda's preoccupation with intestinal difficulties will evaporate in the clear air of family harmony.

As Frieda, Colton turns in the best performance, despite her character's obsession with the frequency and consistency of her excrement. It is to Colton's great credit that she deadpans the lamest of dialog and constantly wrings laughs out of her stock ailing Jewish mother character.

Colton's cast mates don't fare quite as well, struggling to find their footing in overly exaggerated performances. Re tends to deliver all of her lines with the same loud sing-song inflection, while Colodner can't quite park his mensch at the door to deliver the insufferably egotistical doctor that Ira is meant to be. As Lee, Lawton is too young and beautiful to be believable as Marjorie's contemporary, and her uber perkiness becomes tiresome as the play wears on.

Ovian's endearing charm and calming demeanor as the friendly doorman Mohammed are welcome respite from the whirling dervishes around him. As such his eventual abandonment of his professional aloofness is that much more effective when he jumps into the fray to protect the Taubs from what he perceives to be mortal danger.

Matt Whiton's smart contemporary set makes the Lyric's compact three-quarter stage seem high-ceilinged and expansive. By featuring a two-tiered marble floor and a back wall of massive floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook Central Park, he has created the illusion of a spacious Manhattan co-op that only a wealthy doctor could afford to buy. His palette of mauves, grays, plums and charcoals are picked up in Mallory Frers' pitch-perfect costumes, each suiting the mood and character just as Chris Bocchiaro's evocative lighting does.

THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE seems to fall into some uncomfortable middle ground between Busch's delightfully over-the-top parodies and the farcical comedies of Neil Simon. There are glimmers of inspired humor there, but too often the plot's complexities get in the way of true hilarity.

PHOTOS BY MARK S. HOWARD: Joel Colodner as Ira, Zaven Ovian as Mohammed, Ellen Colton as Frieda and Marina Re as Marjorie; Marina Re and Caroline Lawton as Lee; Joel Colodner, Caroline Lawton and Marina Re; Ellen Colton, Caroline Lawton, Marina Re and Joel Colodner

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