McNally's shocking lack of craft in DEUCE

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/14/07 at 5:29pm

Finally caught up with this debacle on Mother's Day. Much has been written about this play's shortcomings, its narrative excesses and dramatic omissions. What disturbed me more than anything is the total lack of craft from this seasoned and successful writer. As drama, it is lazily conceived and executed.

The play as performed feels at best like a weak first draft, and "idea for a play" that hasn't been shaped to employ even the rudimentary nuts and bolts of dramaturgy. Break the rules? It doesn't acknowledge they exist. Or are needed to satisfy an audience's investment. We invest only because of the performers involved, not because the playwright makes a persuasive case that these lives are stage-worthy.

There is no sense of either character even having a subconscious emotional or intellectual need that justifies their glib behavior. Shouldn't this meeting change the course of their lives? Yet they are thrown together without expectation or a sense of mission. They are without goals, other than to see this particular tennis match. And to address mortality -- with even death only a vaguely dreaded endgame, reduce to a cliche.

I remember first hearing of the concept -- and thought "Well, I've never seen that; I bet this will be juicy." But juice is not found on the stage of the Music Box. McNally never bothers to set up let alone develop the potentially rich dramatic premise. Everything feels arbitrarily tossed into the bland expository soup, without attention paid the to relative weight in the story. No revelation feels more important than the last. They tumble out without focus, made even more tedious by mind-numbing interruptions dished out by the three supporting cast members. Pity them all, and us; they may give the stars a break, but we have to continue staring at the stage.

Grandkids, lovers, achievements and failures are duly catalogued, faults semi-examined, but without any sense of a story unfolding that might give them dramatic purpose or justify their reveal. This meeting of old fiend/adversaries is truly just a case of playing catch-up -- a dreadful basis for even approximated dramatic action. There are no stakes, there's no real unfinished business. Because some real history of tennis is sprinkled in haphazardly amid the fictional anecdotes (such as they are), there's an attempt at capturing an unmined milieu. But the revelations about tennis are exhausted within minutes -- at the very top we hear how women used to make no money, and earned no endorsements.

The play's circular structure -- we end just about where we began, with even the final speeches half-baked and unrevealing -- leaves us with no take away but a manipulative benediction -- a premature eulogy -- for a legend and a beloved stage star. That McNally didn't rise to the occasion is just despairing.

Please, Ms. Lansbury -- come back next season in NIGHT MUSIC or anything worthy of you. And Mr. McNally, dig in next time, work harder, take your shows out of town, do them in a regional theater, in a workshop, to test your words before you hide them shamelessly behind the power of an impressive marquee.

Updated On: 5/14/07 at 05:29 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/14/07 at 6:36pm

I keep sensing that McNally was trying to do for tennis what he dis for opera in MASTER CLASS and came up short.

BTW: Don't you think it's time MASTER CLASS was revived?

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 5/14/07 at 6:58pm

I haven't read Master Class yet but I definitely think that McNally's a great writer.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 5/14/07 at 8:34pm

Auggie, I agree with every word you said. Great analysis. This entire outing is an utter shame.

Dollypop, MASTER CLASS closed not even 10 years ago, which, in New York theatregoers' minds, feels like yesterday, and they're the ones that go to plays.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:02am

I was startled that Angela was nominated, despite many forecasts. Honoring such a great is never wrong, to my thinking, and it's a tribute to her career and her return.

But I wonder if it will inspire others, elsewhere, to want to do this play -- the assumption being, "it got Angela a Tony nom."

[hellzapoppin2000]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 10:29am

Let McNally pack up his kit NOW and fall into obscurity. He is way past his prime and had offered nothing in the past few years but tedious evening of theater. And while some playgoers might be titillated by male nudity, it really just points up how he needs a marketing ploy.

Posted: 5/15/07 at 7:23pm

Deuce has male nudity?

I'd like to see him work on more musicals actually--most of his more recnet work I've enjoyed has been there

[SamIAm]

Posted: 5/15/07 at 8:22pm

First, I do not think it is meaningful to tell someone to retire from writing because they are old (at least that is what one of the posts above seemed to suggest). McNally may in fact have mined his creative vein, but age is not the issue. Creativity is the issue.

Secondly, McNally IS working on a book for a musical: Catch Me If You Can.

[MrsVampyre]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 12:00pm

Terrance McLally is a very talented writer, and has numerous awards including the Pulitzer.

His characters are always fully developed, and the storylines typically very real and true to life. A feat that many writers wish they could come close to acheieving.

Unfortunately, not every show a writer creates will appeal to everyone's tastes. This doesn't mean that a writer should retire by any means.

Personally, I have seen most of Terrance McNally's plays, and have enjoyed each of them very much... including Deuce.

If you dislike a show, fine, but that should be no reason to suggest that a talented writer should retire.

There are not enough truly talented playwriters today. To many shows on Broadway are either tired old revivals (Les Miz, and A Chous Line), or Disney Drek (Tarzan, Mary Poppins).

It's a breath of fresh air to see something new, and creative, with a cast that is truly amazing.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 12:12pm

I don't think McNally should retire. But he should sure work harder.

I can't help but feel that McNally thought, "It doesn't matter if I write something substandard and mediocre. I've got a big legendary star in it, and THAT'S all the public cares about. People will come, be dazzled by seeing Angela wave her hand and hopefully not pay too much attention that my play is crap that wouldn't get admitted to the sub-Fringe festival. Why should I take the time to write something worthy?"

Updated On: 6/9/07 at 12:12 PM

[nickatnight]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 12:14pm

hellzapoppin...you sound like one of the same bunch of idiots that tried to run arthur miller and tennessee williams out of the biz for decades for being 'past their prime'. van gogh cut off his ear so he didn't have to listen to crap like yours...
mr. mcnally deserves to swing and miss now and again, just like the rest of us...

[madlibrarian]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 12:21pm

Ahem. Not to disparage McNally further, MrsVampyre, but actually he has never won a Pulitzer.

[MrsVampyre]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 12:29pm

Terrance McNally won the Pulitzer in 1994...

1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Terrence McNally for "A Perfect Ganesh"

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 12:31pm

"A Perfect Ganesh" was an excellent, well-written play.

Something "Deuce" is not.

[MrsVampyre]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 12:41pm

Granted, Deuce is not McNallys greatest work, but it's not his worst either.

Have you seen the show? I found it to be enjoyable, and on a par with some of his other works.

But, the point is, there is no need for him to retire.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 6/9/07 at 12:48pm

The 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama went to Edward Albee for Three Tall Women. Not McNally.

Three Tall Women...now THERE is a great play.