Review: Mr. and Mrs. Fitch
Photo: 2st.com
Second Stage; New York, New York
January 26 – April 4
Douglas Carter Beane’s new play is everything you could hope for from the author of The Little Dog Laughed. Witty repartee, scathing commentary on modern fascination with celebrity and people who are famous for doing absolutely nothing, and lying to get ahead.
Not to give too much away, but Mr. and Mrs. Fitch (John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle) are a pair of gossip columnists who live in a swanky, Manhattan studio apartment and are professional party goers — I mean, gossip columnists. Except there is one problem. They have done and seen it all, and there is absolutely no one and nothing worth writing about anymore. So they do what any INSANE person would do, and instead of telling their editor where to shove it and beginning work on their novel, they invent someone to write about. This fictional someone becomes an overnight sensation, and when they attach a sex scandal with a person of ambiguous sexuality — well. The fat really hits the fryer, if you know what I’m saying.
After seeing John Lithgow in his stunning role as the Trinity Killer of this past season of Dexter, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make the transition back to seeing him in comedy, where I am used to seeing him. It took me a couple minutes of convincing myself that he wasn’t going to kill Jennifer Ehle where she stood, but I managed to talk myself out of it. He was charming and funny, and she was wonderful as well. I am less familiar with her, but I am EXCITED (yes, all capitals) to see her as Cat Tully Stark in the Game of Thrones series by HBO. That aside, I have to say they were perfectly wonderful together. They had good chemistry, a natural rhythm in their banter, and I had no trouble seeing them as a married couple.
However.
Beane’s script was lacking, and the literary and cultural references were coming almost faster than I can process them. I am a fan of Gilmore Girls so in a way I am used to it, but this was so different. Lorelai and Rory and the people around them carry on in such a manner that it’s just how they are — I can easily imagine Lorelai being a teenager and speaking in that way. But from the Fitches, it read as posturing. I was trying to reconcile it and find the reason for it to make myself comfortable with it, and about all I could come up with is that it was the Fitches’ way of convincing themselves that their education and intelligence had not been wasted on becoming a pair of gossip hacks.
The design for the show was absolutely beautiful. There is one set, and it is their studio apartment. One wall is a floor-to-ceiling window, which provides light to a cozy living area and a bookshelf that stretches from top to bottom. There is a spiral staircase that leads to an upper level, and a table in the dining area that is covered with papers, books, and their laptop computers. It is richly decorated with warm colors, tasteful art, and a grand piano. (Yes, it is played, and yes, Ehle does perch on it.)
One thing that this play did which did not endear me to it was mocking of new media, particularly blogs (“BLAHGS,” which I am obviously in favor of) and Twitter (“I just breathed, isn’t breathing AWESOME?”; “Do you prefer inhaling or exhaling?”). I am a huge supporter of use of the internet and the FREEness of it all for promotion and entertainment. Eh. It’s one of my soapboxes. When the elder generation of journalists lament their dying medium of print journalism, it just sticks in my craw.
That said, Lithgow and Ehle are so funny that I would say this is well worth seeing. I don’t know that the play pushes the envelope as much as it could, but it’s not a crime to want to laugh.
