To clarify, Lithgow isn't reading the stories. This isn't a Bettle Midler in "I'll Eat You Last" situation where the star just sits on the couch all evening. He has memorized the two short stories and then recites them/acts them out with different voices, etc.
"Haircut" is simply a barber talking to a client, so he pantomimes cutting someone's hair while telling the story, but there's not too much action.
The Wodehouse story has a lot more action and maybe a dozen characters for him to play, so he's moving all around the stage and acting them out.
I mean, to say there's no craft here is wrong. Lithgow is very talented- it's just the first story is boring and basically terrible; the second a case of too little, too late.
He has been touring with the show for years and I assume this was a case of something falling through and Roundabout needing a cheap, easy replacement to plug a hole. In that way the comparison to Sherie's show is apt.
Also, Everyday Rapture was fine in the American Airlines, but it played much better at 2nd Stage, as I'm sure Lithgow's show would fare better in an environmental setting with the Transport Group or the like.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
, yes.
