Intiman's A Thousand Clowns Is Just Terrific, Mac
Matthew Boston (Murray), Julie Jesneck (Sandy), and Nick Robinson (Nick) in Intiman Theatre's A Thousand Clowns
Tonight, 8 p.m., is a pay-what-you-can performance ($5 suggested minimum per ticket, cheapskates), and we don't think there's a better deal in town.
Herb Gardner's 1963 play picks up with the unemployed Murray in full retreat to childhood, taking in movie matinees and touring New York on a pretend vacation. Complicating things is his live-in, 12-year-old nephew Nick. Murray describes Nick as a "middle-aged kid" (what people said about Asperger's before anyone knew what to call it)--and in fact, list-making Nick brings the officious Child Welfare Board to Murray's door for writing an essay on the advantages of unemployment insurance.
Matthew Boston (Otto Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank at Intiman) plays Murray as a man who compulsively challenges all authority except his own. He's funny, full of one-liners and wild assertions, but he ducks the reality of his adulthood. That kind of thing is for squares. He and Nick (Nick Robinson) have an Odd Couple arrangement, as if they're simply roommates.
Robinson is just about untouchable as Nick, nailing the New Yorker patois with a great accent and rhythm, and displaying smarts, bravado, vulnerability, and even ukulele chops. (Applause for dialect coach Judith Shahn and ukulele coach John Ackermann.)
Murray starts out an anti-establishmentarian hero--heckling social workers Albert Amundson (Bradford Farwell) and Sandra Markowitz (Julie Jesneck)--but then he doesn't stop, insulting his brother (and agent) Arnold (a sly, brave David Pichette), and even neurotic Chuckles the Chipmunk, Leo Herman (a wonderfully alarming Tim Hyland ), when he tries to hire Murray back to the show. Nor can he stop from harassing his neighbors in the sun-blocking skyscraper next door.
Director Sari Ketter (last at Intiman for The Diary of Anne Frank, as well) knows Murray is the type of guy that can't quit barking at the world for not conforming his expectations. She keeps us from buying into his patter, letting us see others being let down by Murray. She also gives more insight into Jesneck's fresh-from-grad-school psychologist Markowitz, including an beautifully awkward morning-after walk of shame. (Note to costume designer Marcia Dixcy Jory--we want all of Murray's outfits. Also, Sandra's just-short-of-petticoats ensemble just kills.)
Set designer Nayna Ramey delivers a happily dumpy one-bedroom apartment, capped by the spires of a mini-Gotham, and half a coup de theatre when Murray visits Arnold in his 22nd floor office and they seem to hang there in the air above the city. This is a great Gardner scene--the devil tempting Christ-like Murray with the city--because it turns out to be the reverse. Again and again, Gardner pulls the rug out from under your dramatic expectations, and offers you something that rings true.
