Pay No Attention To What This Poster Says!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       Darlings, Rihanna's non-appearance at The MET Gala was a horrible mistake.  But for her to miss this play would not have been.

                                        Dan Lauria is one of our best character actors.  And Theater Queens, such as I, will run to see Patty McCormack, aka Rhoda Penmark, in "The Bad Seed."

                                        Lauria may have acting chops, but he is not a playwright.  This two act play, which really could have been condensed into one, starts out like an Edward Albee "Zoo Story" wannabe, then drifts ever so slowly into Samuel Beckett territory, ending up on the shore of Joan Didion.

                                           Now, I am no fan of Joan, but I wish she had written this, because her writing, though depressing, had clarity and cogency.  Mr. Lauria's script does not

                                           The one to feel sorry for is Patty McCormack.  She gives it her all (though she goes up on her lines early on) but can be forgiven, given the script she was handed.  Besides all the other playwrights imitated, Lauria gives the McCormack character (the people are never named) a dose of garbled verbiage that any actress would be challenged to master.  Lauria is OK, but then this is his ego baby!

                                             Opinions will differ among viewers, but I thought this was the tale of a husband and wife, the latter in a facility due to Alzheimer's, and a husband who visits her, and lives at home, while his cognition, which seems declining, still lasts.  This is a topic I am not comfortable with.

                                              Were it just about two unknown people who meet, it would bear a resemblance to Truman Capote's "Among The Paths To Eden."  But, since Capote wrote it, there was poetry, artistry, and lyrical, manageable dialogue.

                                                 As for director Eric Krebbs, whom I recall from the starting days of the George Street Playhouse, in New Brunswick, NJ, while I was still living in Highland Park, he is as lacking in skill as Lauria.  He needs to pace his actors, especially Patty, and teach them--here especially--to speak rhythmically, because she has some patter talk that comes out sounding like she is singing Sondheim's "Getting Married Today."  And that takes practice.

                                                      But no amount of practice can excuse Lauria's crappy script.  The way this is advertised like a feel good comedy when it is not insults the theatergoing community.

                                                      Patty, we love you, but it was better when you murdered everyone in sight.  Perhaps you should have done the same here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!