It Actually IS Possible To Ruin "The Bad Seed," Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Nothing will ever top the above.  But the treatment this property received, in a staged reading, allegedly directed by Cynthia Nixon, as a fundraiser for the theater company The New Group, was appalling.

                                 Cynthia, don't give up acting.  You are NOT a director.  This 'Bad Seed' had no nuance, no pathos, because too may of the cast camped it up for laughs.  The dialogue of Maxwell Anderson, still, as always, sets it in the 1950's, but one got no sense of time from how the actors read their parts.

                                   Let me say, there are two ways to approach "The Bad Seed."  Either straight on, as us aficionados of this piece prefer, or veer into high camp, and let the audience laugh it up.

                                   When both are combined, as is the case here, the results are embarrassing.

                                     Besides Cynthia, most of the blame falls on an actor I have hitherto admired--John Cameron Mitchell.  He read the titular role of Rhoda Penmark.  Now, already, when there is a man, an adult, reading Rhoda, one is teetering on the camp verge.  But Mitchell just yucked it up, playing the whole thing for laughs.  If he had gone for pathology, suggesting, say, a young Norman Bates, it might have worked.

                                      The real pros were Fred Weller, as Leroy, Taylor Schilling as Christine Penmark, Brooke Bloom as Miss Fern, and Wallace Shawn as Reginald Tasker.  These actors were all spot on, though, in the scene where Christine confronts her father, who states Rhoda is a sound little girl, that is when she needed to rise to the level of Nancy Kelly, by replying--But is she, father?  IS SHE??????????"

                                        Crystal Lucas-Perry, as Mrs. Daigle, gets it right when she keeps it understated, bringing out the genuine pathos of this character.  But then she, too resorts to histrionics and hysterical hand gestures.  Cynthia, why didn't you step in, and fix this?????????????

                                           As for Ebony Marshall-Oliver as Monica Breedlove, she gets the naivete and obtuseness, but not the garrulousness of the character.  Again--where is the direction?????????

                                           And couldn't there have been some minimal effects---like an offstage recording of "Au Clair De La Lune," or dry ice drifting onstage, when Leroy is set on fire in the basement??????????????

                                            Nuance was so missing from this reading it really had no dramatic impact.  I will travel anywhere to see "The Bad Seed," but I live in hope that, before my time elapses, I will have seen a genuinely good onstage version of it.

                                             Because, like Rhoda, had I been backstage, or near Nixon or any of the inferior actors, I might have bumped into them, and slipped--on purpose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                              Woe to all here who ruined "The Bad Seed" on purpose!  Curses to those who had no idea what to do with this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                 Do you think I will support The New Group now?????????  Not a chance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!