Theater review by Helen Shaw
David Rabe’s generous, long-winded drama Good for Otto begins, very intentionally, like Our Town. A kind-eyed man tells us about a small town in New England, speaking to us as casually as a friend. Like Thornton Wilder’s Stage Manager, our guide can see into the hearts of men, but this time it’s not because of supernatural omniscience. Rather, Dr. Michaels (Ed Harris, a gorgeous presence onstage) works at the Northwood Mental Health Center, where he and fellow therapist Evangeline (Amy Madigan) do their best to fight for their clients against depression and, sometimes, the insurance company.
Some of the audience members sit onstage, and the actors (including stars like F. Murray Abraham, Mark Linn-Baker and Rhea Perlman) sit among them. We’re both witnessing therapy sessions and overhearing Dr. Michaels’s dreams; the actors sometimes rise to sing his favorite songs, such as “On Moonlight Bay.” This communitarian gesture—a group singing to heal an individual—can be raggedly beautiful, and as long as it stays in Wilder’s warm shadow, Good for Otto works. But Rabe, a master of the postwar-trauma play, is inexorably drawn to pain that overwhelms reason, and here he loses his grip on the necessary calm.
The play saddles Harris with an on-the-nose haunting from his character’s wicked mother, and increasingly noisy scenes about an abused child place an insupportable burden on an overwhelmed young actor. Worse, director Scott Elliott hurries our emotions along with bathetic piano arpeggios every time something sad happens. Rabe’s intentions are wonderful; he’s taking inspiration from an actual clinic, and as a paean to the real world’s heroic therapists, Good for Otto flourishes like a trumpet. But three hours of trumpeting grows tiring. Over the play’s considerable length, there are several false notes, and even the right ones start to wear on the ear.
The New Group (Off Broadway). By David Rabe. Directed by Scott Elliott. With ensemble cast. Running time: 3hrs. One intermission.
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