New York — The tempetuous relationship between childhood friends Kit Markham and Milly Watson Drake is chronicled in "Old Acquaintance," an early 1940s comedy by John Van Druten adapted into a spirited if more melodramatic 1943 movie incarnation starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins.
New York — The tempetuous relationship between childhood friends Kit Markham and Milly Watson Drake is chronicled in "Old Acquaintance," an early 1940s comedy by John Van Druten adapted into a spirited if more melodramatic 1943 movie incarnation starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins.
Unfortunately, the Roundabout Theatre Company's tame, if expensive-looking, Broadway revival creaks along with an excess of chatter and a minimum of dramatic oomph as directed by Michael Wilson.
Kit is a well-respected if not exactly best-selling writer; Milly is a writer of popular successes but without much literary cache.
Kit also is the ultimate in Manhattan sophistication — or at least Milly's 19-year-old daughter, Deirdre, thinks so. The older woman has had a series of lovers, including her current flame, a handsome, younger man with whom Deirdre falls in love, and he with her.
Mom is not too pleased. But then Milly is a flighty, suburban divorcee, awash in insecurities and unable to get much respect from her offspring.
At the Roundabout, a reserved Margaret Colin is a tad too wholesome for Kit's worldliness, Harriet Harris, an expert comedian, is at times too cartoonish for what "Old Acquaintance" is trying to say — although, it must be admitted, Hopkins is voraciously campy in the celluloid version, too.
As the daughter, a shrill Diane Davis, is a bit of a pill, but Corey Stoll scores as Kit's junior admirer.
When the talk gets tepid, the audience can always examine the exquisite detail of designer Alexander Dodge's opulent New York settings: Kit's painting-filled Washington Square duplex and Milly's Park Avenue apartment, gilded to the gills. David C. Woolard's costumes are equally opulent.
If you go ...
What: "Old Acquaintance," a Broadway revival of a play by John Druten as staged by the Roundabout Theatre Company
Where: American Airlines Theatre, 227 W. 42nd St., New York City
Call: 212-719-1300
On the Web: www.roundabouttheatre.org