Theater review

Is Long Day's Journey Into Night Eugene O'Neill's greatest work—and perhaps the greatest of all American dramas? Many critics think so, but the jury remains divided about its country-cousin (and O'Neill's final play), A Moon for the Misbegotten. Moon is, in many ways, only a few steps away from Long Day. It is as personal, and—in the right hands—as harrowing. But it takes an extraordinary production to pull off its strange admixture of Irish charm and darkness. The earnest version now at McCarter gets about halfway there.

In Moon, the Hogans—father Phil and daughter Josie—are shanty Irish tenant farmers, living on the Connecticut property of the Tyrones (the protagonists of Long Day, and literary doppelgangers for O'Neill's own family). When the action of Moon begins, the Tyrone parents have died. James Jr., the wastrel son and brother, is mourning in particular the loss of his mother. He seeks solace with Josie Hogan, who is brash, oversized—and as needy as James.

Moon's early scenes are full of back-and-forth plotting over the possible sale of the property, which would displace the Hogans. But the heart of the play is the elegiac love story of Josie and James. She needs someone to treat her like a woman. He wants a combination earth mother and Madonna to help him expiate his guilt over his mother, and his compensatory drinking and promiscuity.

It's an actor's play, and it demands a lot—that each of the leads can move from comical Irish tale-telling to dark-night-of-the-soul confessions. It's interesting to see former brat-packer Andrew McCarthy as James—the middle-aged-ness now stamped on his boyish face brings a shiver of mortality to the fortysomethings in the audience. But despite some graceful moments, McCarthy is too contemporary and lightweight. Kathleen McNenny (Josie) acts well but unremarkably, and is too petite and pretty for a woman whom O'Neill describes as "almost a freak." In fact, the whole show is too small.

Director Gary Griffin, who did wonders with his chamber version of My Fair Lady in the same theater, seems off-form here. The staging is awkward, dominated by a ramshackle set that dwarfs the action. There are nice touches of realism—lots of farm work in Act 1, for example—and he's good with the funny banter (though I'd have to say that's the most dated aspect of the play). But the soulful reckoning of Acts 3 and 4, where the drama achieves monumental grandeur, is paced too fast, and doesn't reach the necessary heights. If you've never seen Moon, you may find things to like in this production—but I imagine you will not be persuaded of the play's greatness.