Two quick reviews before HALLOWEEN– both involving different kinds of — Misery!
MISERY was never so terrifying as what was conveyed in Stephen King’s book about a writer’s experience while being held captive by a rabid fan. His 1987 book became the 1990 horror thriller film starring the incomparable KATHY BATES who won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as obsessed fan Annie Wilkes who holds the object of her obsession hostage until he agrees to resurrect the fictional heroine he killed off in his latest romance novel: “Misery Chastain.”
Onstage now at MERRIMACK REPERTORY THEATRE is the play MISERY adapted by William Goldman, and it is the weakest of the three iterations. I was hoping for a terrible good time as well as the chance to see the wonderful KAREN MacDONALD in the lead role– and she’s worth the trip along with co-star Tom Coiner as the imprisoned writer Paul Sheldon. They do their best despite a script which has stripped out the complexity of a terrifying tale of physical and psychological torture, writer’s block, drug addiction (King has said Annie represented his cocaine addiction), the double-edged price of fame: the attentions of an insatiable and potentially deranged public whose devotion just might kill you. Annie, in fact, is revealed as a serial killer in the book and film- but that layer is also missing in the play.
Too bad. MISERY lent itself to the stage because of the concentration of most of the action in one space, emphasizing the vise-like grip of a monstrous fangirl. In fact the set here by Ryan Bates is very effective especially in a scene where Paul crawls out of bed to a phone in a background set which materializes through a scrim. That scene actually delivers quite a bit of suspense and nerve-wracking tension that the premise promises but most of the play lacks. When Paul burns his script, I didn’t care. When Annie takes a sledgehammer to his ankles, I barely flinched. None of this packed the wallop I still remember from the film.
But then there’s Karen MacDonald who delivers an increasingly creepy Annie– a trained nurse– whose crude handiwork patching up poor Paul Sheldon’s broken legs after rescuing him from a car wreck, hints at the ghoul who put those twisted splints on his broken legs. MacDonald dials up her vindictiveness in stages, an almost genuine vulnerability giving way to the rage and cruelty bubbling below. MacDonald and Coiner attempt to fill in the layers of tension and bone-deep anxiety the script is missing, but despite this duo’s credible efforts, MISERY is merely sad. MISERY is onstage at Merrimack Repertory Theatre through November 2.
But misery absolutely describes what I felt watching a world premiere musical at SPEAKEASY STAGE called LIZARD BOY about a first grader sprayed with dragon blood, who develops lizard-like green scales and grows up shunned by society– until he figures out that “what makes you different is your superpower.” This theme–suitable for adolescents– was repeated ad nauseam by way of a monotonous, lyrically-stunted score written by the playwright Justin Huertas and ill-sung and played by 3 adult protagonists: 2 men (Keiji Ishiguri as Trevor and Peter DiMaggio as Cary), and 1 dangerous blonde (Chelsie Nectow as Siren).
Coping with any childhood trauma, and in this case pursuing an adult gay relationship, can certainly be fodder for creative work. Here the playwright processes these plot points and ideas through comic book and superhero tropes. The resulting mashup is puerile, poorly executed, and made no sense (i.e. are dragons good or bad? Not clear.) The screechy, sing-song score gave the same four notes–several of which the cast missed– quite a work out, most notably whenever they attempted harmony. They’re no K-Pop Demon Hunters— those superheroes can sing!
