The Scene. A play by Teresa Rebeck at the Second Stage Theatre. Starring Anna Camp, Patricia Heaton, Tony Shalhoub, Christopher Evan Welch. We subscribe to many theater companies in New York City and have discovered that most of them have their hits and their misses. It's a critical problem when you have to make a 2 1/2 hour commute which is why the Second Stage Theater is one of our favorite subcriptions, they are rarely off the mark - most everything they do passes the Bridge and Tunnel Test. In other words, we're always happy we've made the effort, even though some of their presentations are better than others. Not every play they produce is a runaway smash like "Little Dog Laughed" but so canny and well cast are their productions, that just about everything they do is worth seeing. Last year's "The Water's Edge" by Teresa Rebeck was a case in point. It was superbly written, and though it went off the rails (badly we thought) in the second act, it was a brave attempt and it was well cast, with the great Kate Burton in the lead role. Now Rebeck has come back with another play "The Scene" and this time, it stays nicely on track. The play, a bitter tragi-comedy, hits all the right notes right from the start and comes to a shattering, some might say, "happy" conclusion at the end, all of it happening in front of our eyes, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. This is a play that belongs on Broadway and if it has this cast, it should do even better than "The Little Dog Laughed"
"The Scene" is a four hander in which we get to see a sexy siren, played by Anna Camp, devour a marriage and destroy friendships as she herself climbs to the top. Clea, as the nastiest "Deus ex machina" imaginable, ends by throwing a bitter, humiliating bone to the lost actor, finely played by Tony Shalhoub, which just possibly could get him back on his feet. Patricia Heaton and Chrisopher Evan Welch are perfect in their roles, but it is Anna Camp's sizzling break-out performance as Clea which is likely to be remembered. If Camp finds more roles that suit her as well as Clea, she's headed for a very big career. Clea is a man destroying role very much like that of Evelyn in Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things" and Camp's performance is even more memorable than Rachel Weisz's Evelyn (and we know how well she has fared in her career!). "The Scene" had its last performance yesterday unless it goes to Broadway as it deserves. "The Scene" receives an A+ in our Broadway Bridge and Tunnel test.
PS, a word to the wise: The sublime "Eurydice" by Sarah Ruhl is being produced by Second Stage in the early Summer. We saw this production in New Haven with presumably the same cast and director. In any case, original or new cast, this play which still haunts our memory is not to be missed.