'Moon for the Misbegotten' Feels Just a Bit Off the Beam

Apr 10, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Elysa Gardner

NEW YORK -- Feeling a little down lately? I've got the perfect tonic to lift your spirits: a rollicking revival of a play by that master of comedy, Eugene O'Neill.

I'm kidding, of course, at least about O'Neill having been a cutup. His epic tragedies have their lighter moments, but that doesn't account for the peals of laughter I heard through much of a recent preview of the new Broadway production of A Moon For the Misbegotten (** 1/2 out of four).

This boisterous but oddly tepid Moon first rose at London's Old Vic, where it earned leading man Kevin Spacey some of the most enthusiastic notices he has received during his turbulent tenure as artistic director there. For the show's current engagement, which opened Monday at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, Spacey imported the complete U.K. cast, including the celebrated British stage actress Eve Best and the beloved Irish character actor Colm Meaney.

I didn't catch that company across the Atlantic, but I did see Moon during its last Broadway run, with an equally distinguished group of actors led by Gabriel Byrne and Cherry Jones. As Jim Tyrone, the acerbic alcoholic bent on self-destruction, and Josie Hogan, the awkward old maid who hides her desperate loneliness behind a tomboyish swagger and a supposed string of rejected lovers, Byrne and Jones delivered witty but heartbreaking performances that elicited more tears than chuckles.

Best's Josie and Spacey's Tyrone, in comparison, can play like Kate and Petruchio having a flirtatious spat. Best barrels on stage like an angry construction worker and spends much of the first act shoving men, slamming doors and wringing clothes dry with a similar sense of restless aggression. It could be argued that mannish behavior is supposed to be Josie's defense mechanism, a function of her denial of feminine longing; but this lady protests too much too much.

Best does soften a bit in Spacey's presence, giving the screen star room for his own shtick. Tyrone calls himself a ham, which Spacey and director Howard Davies clearly perceived as license to indulge the sly comic prowess that helped put the actor on the map. His imitation of Meaney's brogue and subsequent impressions and wisecracks delighted the crowd.

But in darker, more crucial moments, we see less of the capacity for unmannered emotional intensity that made Spacey a major player in both film and theater. There are glimmers of it in some of Tyrone's tortured ramblings, just as Best brings wrenching pathos to Josie's patches of despair, particularly in her scenes with Meaney, who is superb as Josie's bumbling father.

Still, this Moon isn't as absorbing or affecting as it should have been. Let's hope its dynamic, resourceful leads are put to better use in future projects. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.