The American Plan

The American Plan is a play by Richard Greenberg, which ran both Off-Broadway in 1990 and on Broadway in 2009.

Productions

The play premiered Off-Broadway, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club[1] at City Center Stage II on January 23, 1990, where it ran for 32 performances. The original cast included Rebecca Miller (Lili), Tate Donovan (Nick), Beatrice Winde (Olivia), Joan Copeland (Eva), and Eric Stoltz (Gil). The play transferred to the Manhattan Theatre Club Mainstage on December 4, 1990, featuring: Wendy Makkena (Lili), D. W. Moffett (Nick), Joan Copeland (Eva), Yvette Hawkins (Olivia), and Jonathan Walker (Gil).[2]

The Manhattan Theatre Club presented the play on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre from January 2, 2009 in previews, opening January 22, and closing March 22, 2009. Directed by David Grindley, the cast featured Mercedes Ruehl and Lily Rabe.[3][4]

The Theatre Royal Bath presented the play from March 7th to April 6th 2013, starring Luke Allen-Gale as Nick, Diana Quick as Eva and Emily Taaffe as Lili.[5][6]

Overview

The play takes place in 1960, in the Catskill Mountains, in New York. Lili Adler, a troubled 20-year old, meets Nick Lockridge. The two young people develop a romantic relationship over the course of the summer. Eva, Lili's controlling mother, is against any relationship and works to discredit Nick.

Critical response

Michael Billington, in his review of the 2013 Theatre Royal Bath production for The Guardian, wrote: "But what makes the play so compelling is Greenberg's ambivalent view of his characters. We are never sure whether Lili's affable suitor, Nick, is quite what he seems, any more than we know whether Eva might be genuinely seeking to protect her fantasising daughter from a hostile world."[6]

The New Yorker Magazine reviewer of the 2009 production wrote: "From this somewhat incredible beginning, with its glib exposition that smacks of romantic comedy, Greenberg reverses our narrative expectations and spins a psychologically astute, compelling study of narcissistic delusion—his version of 'The Heiress,' in which the payoff is not revenge but revelation about the stranglehold of symbiosis....The play, however, is about greed of an altogether different kind: financial, psychic, and sexual."[7]

References

  1. ↑ Rich, Frank (1990-12-17). "Review/Theater; Lost in the Crosscurrents of Mainstream America". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ Greenberg, Richard . Introduction", The American Plan, Dramatists Play Service Inc, 1991, ISBN 0822200341, p. 4
  3. ↑ Gans, Andrew. "Ruehl and Rabe to Star in Broadway Premiere of Greenberg's American Plan", playbill.com, October 13, 2008
  4. ↑ Jones, Kenneth."Broadway's American Plan Is Extended to March 22", playbill.com, February 19, 2009
  5. ↑ http://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/page/3029/The+American+Plan/542#Overview
  6. 1 2 Billington, MIchael. "Review. The American Plan" The Guardian, 17 March 2013
  7. ↑ "Smother Love" The New Yorker, February 2, 2009

External links

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