On the verge of death for the umpteenth time, Anna (Linda Lavin) makes a shocking confession to her grown children: an affair from her past that just might have resonance beyond the family. But how much of what she says is true? While her children try to separate fact from fiction, Anna fights for a legacy she can be proud of. With razor-sharp wit and extraordinary insight, Our Mother's Brief Affair considers the sweeping, surprising impact of indiscretions both large and small.
Not even the sainted Linda Lavin can save the deeply unpleasant character she plays in 'Our Mother's Brief Affair,' a lazy play by Richard Greenberg...Stubbornly lacking in dramatic tension, the uneventful narrative features a mean-spirited woman who may or may not be on her deathbed, recounting a closely held secret to her disagreeable grown children. There's little to fault in the attractively mounted and very well cast production...Lavin's keen acerbic wit is wasted...on a character like Anna, who is, truth to tell, a sour woman with bitter views of everyone but herself.
Fortunately, one couldn't imagine a better Anna than Lavin, who's still a stunner at 78...and can stop a show with a mere raise of her eyebrow. Moreover, she can pull off a sitcom-territory line like, 'His arms came around me, strong and soft. He was wearing Aramis.' Late in the play, Greenberg rewards Lavin with a meaty memory-within-a-memory monologue...But such sudden, overwhelming sadness is too much, too late. A Richard Greenberg play at Manhattan Theatre Club is theatrical comfort food; this is his 11th MTC production. Somehow, Our Mother's Brief Affair got overcooked. C
2015 | Broadway |
Manhattan Theatre Club Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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