Here I am. I had catching up to do and oatmeal to eat. Both are done. I have to think about my favorite phrases.
I saw Barefoot in the Park on Friday. It lives up to the reviews (not good) but it's not as bad as Mr. Brantley in the Times said it was. The problems are Amanda Peet and direction. Also, IMHO, the play is not the laugh fest it was in 1963. There are a couple of funny lines but the idea of Patrick Wilson not being able to walk up 4 flights (NOT 5 flights OR 6 as they repeatedly say in the show but 4) without being winded got tired quickly. The apartment is a 5th floor walk-up, therefore it takes 4 (FOUR) flights of stairs to reach the apartment. I know because I live in a 4th floor walk-up and I go up (or down) 3 (THREE) flights of stairs to reach my apartment. Just had to put that out there.
Amanda Peet may be good on film, but she's not a stage comedian, at least not in this show. She walks on her laughs, she plays it far too seriously and she's just not that good. Patrick Wilson does better but Scott Elliot's direction is just so cumbersome and intrusive that it's hard to move past that. Jill Clayburgh and Tony Roberts are experienced professionals but this production is just not very good. I think, after seeing it, I know why it hasn't been revived since the original production.
Just my two cents.
