It’s so fashionable for merlot-sipping theater snobs to
dismiss Neil Simon’s plays as sappy comic drivel, especially
with his last two endeavors, “45 Seconds from Broadway”
and “The Dinner Party,” which theater critics welcomed
like open mouth sores.
Simon’s newest work “Rose and Walsh,” which
opened Feb. 5 at the Geffen Playhouse, will definitely not make a
shattering imprint on American theater (or theater critics), but
will perhaps be a touching final bow for Simon.
While the 75-year-old playwright hasn’t commented on the
play foretelling his retirement, “Rose and Walsh” seems
to have an uncanny autobiographical element to it. Jane Alexander
stars as Rose, an eclipsed Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who
deals with the loss of her artistic abilities, her youth, her money
and her colleague and soul mate, Walsh.
Len Cariou (who starred in “The Dinner Party” on
Broadway) plays Walsh, Rose’s deceased lover, who pays
nightly visits to Rose’s Long Island beach house, where she
resides with her assistant Arlene (Marin Hinkle). One night, Walsh,
also a famous novelist, reveals to Rose his unfinished manuscript
which she can complete and have published to replenish her
diminishing funds. The problem is that Rose, whose eyesight and
mental prowess are deteriorating, cannot finish it herself and must
employ the help of a struggling writer to help complete the
book.
Though the play is said to be inspired by the relationship
between Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, the autobiographical
connection to the playwright’s own life seems more than a
coincidence. It’s not surprising that Simon, who lost his
first wife in 1973 and who has lost his luster as the boss of
Broadway, would write a play that deals with the end of a career,
death, loss and regret.
Rose’s lines such as, “I want to go out in style,
accompanied by the philharmonic and the best lifetime achievement
review ever written,” seem to be Simon’s subconscious
theatrical last words. But with “Rose and Walsh,” his
33rd play, Simon still may be looking for one last chance for a
comeback.
Though Simon was able to rekindle his mid-’60s success of
“Barefoot in the Park” and “The Odd Couple”
in the ’80s and ’90s with “Biloxi Blues”
and “Lost in Yonkers” (both of which earned him Tonys
as well as a Pulitzer for “Yonkers”), “Rose and
Walsh” just doesn’t have what it takes to be an A-train
ride back to Broadway glory. But the play is still a touching piece
of theater, despite some weak performances.
The second night of “Rose and Walsh’s” world
premiere was on the whole shaky, with Alexander and Cariou not
quite inhabiting the personae of the two bantering soul mates. And
while there were moments when the veteran actors nailed the
tormented passion, for the most part, the stumbled lines and
fumbled timing set the lovers’ supposed torrid rapport
akilter.
However, Hinkle and Baker, the two younger writer counterparts,
could have given Alexander and Cariou a chemistry lesson. The two
were brilliant in their candid portrayals of a timid woman and a
crude tortured writer, even though their love story is a bit
banal.
Some of the plot’s other supposed surprises unfold
predictably and unoriginally, but in terms of witty one-liners,
Simon is still on-point. “I never should’ve scattered
your ashes on the beach,” Rose says to Walsh. “They
have a way of blowing back in my face.” In his artful
undercutting of sentimental moments with witty barbs and vice
versa, Simon stays true to form. And while normally those keenly
clever one-liners run the risk of seeming contrived, the repartee
is believable coming from characters who are writers.
There’s no need here for cheesy figurative language
predicting that “Rose and Walsh” will eventually
blossom into a beautiful piece of theater. It won’t ever be
the beauty of some of Simon’s past works, but it’s
charming on its own.