‘Crimes of the Heart’ lands at the Civic
Beth Henley’s “Crimes of the Heart” has quite a history, considering it’s a “contemporary” American play:
•It debuted on Broadway in 1981, starring Mary Beth Hurt and Peter MacNicol (“Ally McBeal”).
•It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama that same year.
•It was made into a semi-successful film in 1986, starring Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek.
•It has become a must-do production for community theaters around the country, including the Spokane Civic Theatre, which did an earlier Studio Theatre version in 1990.
•It has now returned with considerable fanfare to New York, in a production directed by Kathleen Turner.
And – although this may not be considered big news in New York – it will also be back beginning Friday at the Civic’s Firth Chew Studio Theatre, in a production directed by George Green.
For those who have managed to miss it over the past 27 years, “Crimes of the Heart” is a combination of dark comedy and eccentric Southern melodrama.
The Southern melodrama part: Three Mississippi sisters, raised in a dysfunctional family, deal with a full share of personal problems.
The dark comedy part: One of the sisters just shot her husband.
“I was going for his heart,” says Babe. “But I only got him in the stomach.”
The Magrath sisters are what you might call “peculiar,” but each in their own way. Meg is tough, Lenny is a worrier and Babe is, well, loony. They all need to atone for various “crimes of the heart.”
The play was an immediate success when it first played the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1980. It immediately transferred to Broadway, where it ran for 535 performances and made a star out of MacNicol.
“While this play overflows with infectious high spirits, it is also, unmistakably, the tale of a very troubled family,” wrote New York Times critic Frank Rich. “Such is Ms. Henley’s prodigious talent that she can serve us pain as though it were a piece of cake.”
The play continues to be a popular choice in regional and community theaters, at least in part because it has such a juicy roles for actresses. Yet there is some evidence to suggest that its reputation as a great script seems to be suffering lately.
Critic Hilton Als, in reviewing the revival in The New Yorker magazine last month, wrote: “The world at large – the world of politics, and cruelty outside of the kitchen – rarely seeps into Henley’s slightly sour ambrosia of corny scenes and stock characters, which is a pity.”
Pretty harsh words, for a Pulitzer-winner.
Yet Als also gives us a clue about the enduring appeal of this play in the theater world.
“The production makes clear just how seductive the writer’s Southern-fried world is to actors: Henley provides enough subtext for her characters to seem complicated, and just enough wackiness to allow an actor to show off,” he wrote.
The Civic production features Chasity Kohlman as Lenny Magrath, Nancy Gasper as Meg Magrath and Ashley Cooper as Babe Magrath.
Luke Barats (of Barats and Bereta local comedy duo fame) plays Barnette Lloyd, the role that MacNicols originated. Kari McClure plays Chick Boyle and Doug Dawson plays Doc Porter.