BWW Reviews: Falls' THE ICEMAN COMETH, a Superlative and Sensitive Production

The Richard Wagner of American drama, Eugene O'Neill's theatrical innovations and human insights are sometimes overshadowed by the marathon lengths of achievements like Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electra and Long Day's Journey Into Night.

But as a playwright who so frequently delved into the worlds of lonely people enduring tedious existences, the lengths of his dramas helped convey the realities of their lives.

So while some may question the necessity to spend four hours and forty-five minutes (three intermissions) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Chicago's Goodman Theatre production of The Iceman Cometh, director Robert Falls' superlative and sensitive production, played by a top-shelf ensemble, fills the evening with gripping emotions and heart-shattering empathy.

O'Neill set his drama, which premiered in 1946, at Harry Hope's Saloon, a 1912 watering hole inspired by the old wooden taverns he would frequent as a young writer in Greenwich Village, where he would see older artists and radicals wasting their days in inebriated depression, relishing the glories of their youth and seeing few prospects for the future.

At Harry's, the disillusioned denizens include Larry Slade, a former political anarchist, who, as portrayed by Brian Dennehy, is a ghastly, hollow-souled and grim-voiced figure. His nearest rival for hopelessness is Harvard law alum Willie (the excellent John Hoogenakker), so deeply alcoholic that he continually shakes.

The brilliant John Douglas Thompson balances acceptance and defiance as Joe Mott, the only black regular customer. Once a very successful gambling house promoter, Joe endures racist indignities until the line gets crossed.

Salvatore Inzerillo provides an understated threat of violence as the hulking bartender, Rocky, who pimps for three ladies (Tara Sissom, Lee Stark and Kate Arrington) who prefer not to be called whores.

Other notable turns are played by Stephen Ouimette as owner Harry, Lee Wilkof as the former publisher of radical periodicals and James Harms as a one-time war correspondent.

The play opens with the gang, desperate and broke, waiting for the annual arrival of their dapper traveling salesman chum, Hickey, who always comes with a fistful of greenbacks to finance an extra-long binge.

Nathan Lane is showcased in this gregarious role that at first appears to be the kind of energetic, fast-talking character audiences are accustomed to seeing him play. Hickey arrives with the surprising news that he's given up alcohol and encourages his mates to give up their unrealistic pipe dreams and make some realistic choices in their lives. Some take him up on the challenge, but others are too settled in their defeatist ways.

When it turns out that Hickey's life hasn't exactly changed for the better, Lane seizes the stage in a riveting gut-spilling speech exposing Hickey's dark secret.

The production is greatly enhanced by the striking work of designers Kevin Depinet (set), Natasha Katz (lights) and Merrily Murray-Walsh (costumes), creating stage pictures that resemble dusty period oil paintings.

It may be a long night's journey, but Falls' mounting of The Iceman Cometh is a most captivating interlude.

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