"The Marrying Kind"
So. Here’s the thing, as one of the characters in Michael
McKeever’s Daniel’s Husband is wont
to say. Imagine you’re a playwright and are preoccupied with the pros and cons
of gay marriage. Perhaps you think all gay couples should say “I do.” Or maybe
you’ve got doubts, and think true love is more important than a gold band. So why not create a play with a couple
representing both sides of the question and see where it leads? |
| Ryan Spahn, Lou Liberatore, Leland Wheeler, Matthew Montelongo. Photo: James Leynse. |
Which is what McKeever seems to have attempted in his drawing
room comedy cum Lifetime soap opera, a Primary Stages production at the Cherry
Lane, first seen last year at the Penguin Rep in Stony Point, New York. The
play, trenchantly directed by Joe Brancato, received a rousing reception the
night I went but, for all its pleasantries and the inherent interest of its
subject, its by-the-numbers contrivances in order to make a point left me numb.
 |
| Ryan Spahn, Matthew Montelongo. Photo: James Leynse. |
First up is the drawing room comedy, set in the upscale, tastefully
appointed apartment (classily, if blandly, designed by Brian Prather and
well-lit by Christina Watanabe) of successful architect Daniel Bixby (Ryan
Spahn, quietly appealing). Daniel lives here with his devoted partner of seven
years, Mitchell Howard (Matthew Montelongo, deeply committed), a best-selling
author of gay-oriented romantic novels in the Barbara Cartland tradition.
A party’s in session with two guests, Mitchell’s agent,
Barry Dylon (Lou Liberatore, charmingly affectionate), close friend to both
men, and Barry’s latest squeeze, Trip (Leland Wheeler, convincingly gauche).
Trip, at 23, is more than twice as young as Barry, whose preference for
youthful lovers offers food for laughs. Trip, in one of the play’s formulaic
devices (although I won’t say why), is an in-home health-care specialist; Barry
insists on calling him a nurse.
As they drink wine and eat Daniel’s crème brûlée , the men
engage in amusing, familiarly gay-slanted, comic repartee, much of it
stimulated by a game where you have to choose one of two alternatives, like “jelly
beans or gummy bears?,” “Anderson Cooper or Don Lemon?,” the latter, of course,
referring to their “hotness,” not their journalistic talents. Music is played
on a turntable, allowing us to chortle at the child-like Trip’s excitement over
holding an LP album in his hands for the very first time (if you can believe it).
 |
| Matthew Montelongo, Leland Wheeler. Photo: James Leynse. |
When Trip wonders why his hosts, with their seemingly perfect
relationship, aren’t married, the tension begins to escalate. Regardless of
Daniel’s strong desire to wed, Mitchell feels compelled to defend his
antagonism for the very institution of marriage, gay or straight, considering
it antiquated and archaic; he also argues that, as a gay man, he has no
interest in following the normative path created by heterosexuals. You perk up
your ears for his unconventional, provocative take on something most people take
for granted.
 |
| Anna Holbrook, Matthew Montelongo, Lou Liberatore. Photo: James Leynse. |
Soon after, we meet Lydia (Anna Holbrook, convincingly controlling),
Daniel’s mother, a wealthy, fashionable, bottle-blond in the Blythe Danner mold,
who flies in to visit her son, whose gayness she not only accepts but welcomes.
Her eccentricities get some laughs but she and Daniel have a strained
relationship. Partly this is because she despises and he admires his late father, an
artist whose angry painting is imagined to be staring down on Daniel’s
apartment; partly it's because he considers her too self-centered. Later,
Mitchell asserts that Daniel hates Lydia, but, as acted, Daniel’s feelings seem
more like frustrated annoyance, such as most of us feel in such circumstances, than
something as profound as hate.
 |
| Matthew Montelongo. Photo: James Leynse. |
Then, about midway through, as Daniel and Mitchell are again
arguing about marriage, the gods of melodrama throw down their gauntlet. While
I have to refrain from giving too much away, I’ll say that the comedy all but
shrivels up, and for those so inclined, tears flow. What might have made for an
interesting debate about gay marriage devolves into dramaturgic schmaltz in which
Mitchell and Daniel’s relationship becomes involved in litigious matters that a
little foresight could easily have resolved. Perhaps unmarried gay couples will
learn something from all this.
 |
| Ryan Spahn. Photo: James Leynse. |
If you’re willing to accept the fortuitous event that alters
the course of these otherwise blessed characters’ lives as inevitable, you’ll
probably find Daniel’s Husband deeply
moving. On the other hand, if you see that life-changing occurrence as a
playwright’s didactic contrivance, you may be unable to buy any of it at all. Which
will it be: jelly beans or gummy bears?
OTHER VIEWPOINTS:
Cherry Lane Theatre
38 Commerce St., NYC
Through April 28
