BWW Reviews: THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING: Calling Tina Fey

That Hopey Changey Thing

Written by Richard Nelson, Directed by Weylin Symes; Scenic Design, Crystal Tiala; Costume Design, Gail Astrid Buckley; Lighting Design, Jeff Adelberg; Sound Design, David Wilson; Props Master, Megan F. Kinneen; Production Stage Manager, Adele Nadine Traub; Production Assistant, Tyler Rosati

CAST (in alphabetical order): Joel Colodner, Laura Latreille, Karen MacDonald, Paul Melendy, Bill Mootos, Sarah Newhouse

Performances through March 15 at Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main Street, Stoneham, MA; Box Office 781-279-2200 or www.stonehamtheatre.org

Stoneham Theatre and Gloucester Stage Company have announced a collaboration to present all four of Richard Nelson's Apple Family Plays over the course of the next two seasons. Stoneham kicks things off with That Hopey Changey Thing, directed by Producing Artistic Director Weylin Symes. He will be directing all four plays and the set, props, and lighting will travel between the two locations. Reminiscent of the Gloucester Stage production of the three plays comprising Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests a few years ago, the same cast will portray the Apples for the duration.

That's the good news, featuring a half dozen quality representatives of Boston's theater community, all of whom are members of Actors' Equity, in the lineup: Joel Colodner, Laura Latreille, Karen MacDonald, Paul Melendy, Bill Mootos, and Sarah Newhouse (the latter is a veteran of The Norman Conquests, too). One would hope that they'll be able to make the relationships gel going forward, but at this juncture, they are getting by on their professional chops and personal familiarity. They share a comfortable camaraderie with each other, but don't give off a family vibe. It takes more than a few scenes to figure out who is related to whom and how, but that lack of clarity rests in the hands of the playwright. Perhaps the actors will be able to get deeper into their characters as time goes on, but they're written as mostly one-dimensional.

Nelson wrote the plays between 2010 and 2013, with each play focused on either an election or a significant historical anniversary being observed around the dinner table in Rhinebeck, New York. That Hopey Changey Thing takes place on the day of the midterm elections in 2010. All of the members of the family are various degrees of liberal, with the exception of Richard (Mootos), the sole male sibling, who has become a Republican. Marian (Newhouse) is the staunchest, with Barbara (MacDonald) and Jane (Latreille) falling somewhere in-between. Jane's actor-boyfriend Tim (Melendy) is new on the scene and presumably shares the same political bent, and Uncle Benjamin (Colodner) doesn't remember whose side he's on because he has amnesia after suffering a recent heart attack. Nelson milks this disability for humor and pathos, and it is only Colodner's sympathetic portrayal that keeps it from being entirely annoying.

For sure, there is a wealth of material to be mined for humor from a large family gathering, but these siblings don't seem to know each other that well and snipe more than anything. The title of the play implies a focus on political humor (referring to Sarah Palin's mocking of Barack Obama's slogan in the 2008 election), but the hoped-for zingers fail to materialize. There is an extended scene in which they discuss the national reaction to 9/ll and segue into expressing opinions about President Obama which goes on too long and simply isn't funny. A couple of interesting tangents are introduced - Jane's research into American customs of etiquette, Uncle Benjamin's career in the theater - but they don't go anywhere, and we are given one or two threads of information about each of the sibs that are left dangling. Will they be sewn together in the subsequent plays?

The design elements are strong, including Crystal Tiala's dining room set, Jeff Adelberg's lighting, Gail Astrid Buckley's costumes, and David Wilson's sound design. There needs to be a shout out to props master Megan F. Kinneen whose attention to detail (and all that food!) is a big factor in conveying the atmosphere. Symes choreographs a lot of traffic with the actors entering and exiting with platters of food and other necessities for the meal. However, there are several occasions when a character addressing the rest of the cast stands with his/her back to the audience, as if we're not there. On a day when the theater's assistive listening system was on the fritz, this was a major problem.

That Hopey Changey Thing will be followed by Sweet and Sad (the 10th anniversary of 9/11), Sorry (the 2012 presidential election), and Regular Singing (the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination). Stoneham Theatre has set the table for the feast of Nelson's plays, but the nutritional value needs a boost.

Photo credit: Mark S. Howard (Sarah Newhouse, Bill Mootos, Karen MacDonald, Laura Latreille, Joel Colodner, Paul Melendy)

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