Arts:Blog

Theatre Review: A Steady Rain ***

Michael Cox reviews 'a moderate success' with two terrific performances.

Denny and Joey go way back. They knew each other in school. They grew up together. And now they’re cops, partners in patrolling the mean streets of Chicago. But life isn’t good for either of them: Joey is single and fighting alcoholism; Denny has to cut corners and shakedown prostitutes just to pay for his family’s lifestyle.

Keith Huff’s script was celebrated when it premiered nearly 10 years ago. When it opened on Broadway it had Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig in its cast. Box office records were broken, and many put the play in their ‘Top 10’ lists at the end of the year.

Without the star pull of those leads or the glamour of Broadway, it’s all but impossible to see what the big deal really was. Huff’s script is a collection of clichés and trite sensationalism. It’s full of ideas but is too intent on being clever to do anything interesting or original.

But all is not lost here. What Theatre Jezebel saw in the piece is unknown, but Mary McCluskey’s production is still effective. It is well paced (though the interval is unnecessary and breaks the tension) and sharply handled throughout. It looks good, and it is never boring.

It also has two fantastic performances. Andy Clark makes Denny into a sympathetic hard head—he constantly does bad, but we still want to like him. Robert Jack, however, is terrific as Joey: haunted, desperate to do the right thing yet conflicted in almost everything in his life. Together, Clark and Jack make for compelling viewing, even if the end is inevitable.

Still, the flaws in the script make this a moderate success instead of a triumph; there is only so much two actors can do with so little.

A Steady Rain performs at the Tron until September 24.