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'Thinking' not magical

By Matt Windman | amNewYork Theater Critic

7:40 PM EDT, March 29, 2007

Just as there are few good one-person comedies, there are even fewer one-person dramas that work theatrically.

Real theater hardly ever comes about without actual scenes of dialogue. Ninety-minute monologues, even when performed by the best actors, can easily drive any audience into boredom.

"The Year of Magical Thinking," a stage adaptation of Joan Didion's work of the same title, has perhaps the most prestige of any show this spring. Though it is the polar opposite in terms of size of Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia," it has already received the reputation of being this season's must-see snob hit.

Didion has adapted her original narrative, which has previously been proclaimed as a benchmark in mourning literature. The idea to stage it came from no less than mega-producer Scott Rudin. Acclaimed playwright and director David Hare has staged it. And Vanessa Redgrave, in her first Broadway show since "Long Day's Journey," plays Didion.

Within a complex narrative structure packed with psychological themes, the work examines the night in Didion's life that her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, died of a massive coronary after they sat down to dinner, while her only child lay in a coma in a New York hospital.

But is this really theater?

Yes, but only in the sense that anything on a stage can technically constitute theater.

Perhaps the problem results from the intensity of Redgrave's performance. Due to the naturalism, she has no desire to reach out to the audience and maintain our attention. Only by literally reading Didion's work could one appreciate her complex language.

The bottom line: Redgrave is a truly compelling actress, and Hare supplies strong production values. But without having read Didion's book beforehand, the monologue comes across as dry, boring and endless. Wouldn't it be more fun to see a real play -- even a bad one?

Booth Theatre, 222 W 45th St, 212-239-6200, $76.25-$96.25. Mon-Fri 8pm, Sat 2 & 8pm. Open run.