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New York Theater: ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune’ at the Broadhurst Theatre portrays the universal search for love in our time

With two excellent, disciplined leads in Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon, and excellent direction by Arin Arbus, this rich production immerses us deeply in this sometimes grim, romantic play.

Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald in "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," through Aug. 25 at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York.
Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald in "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," through Aug. 25 at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York.Read moreDeen van Meer

In the introduction to his play, Terrence McNally said that while he was writing Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, he felt he was Johnny: “I identified with him completely.” Then, “a year later, I was watching a production of the play [… ] when I realized I was Frankie.”

Most of us are probably both: Gogo and Didi, Frog and Toad, Frankie and Johnny. She is mistrusting and cynically defensive against disappointment; he is openly and ridiculously needy.“You’re gonna stand there and tell me you’re not weird?” “Of course I’m weird.”

Who isn’t?

In this rich revival of McNally’s 1987 two-person play — both a romantic middle-aged-boy-meets-middle-aged-girl comedy as well as a grim, naturalistic drama — Arin Arbus directs her stars with excellent judgment. Her first choice was to erase the glamour from her glamorous star, the six-time Tony-winning, lushly beautiful Audra McDonald; the second smart choice was to erase any sign of menace from the square-jawed, too-tall Michael Shannon, who is often cast in frightening, violent roles.

The plot begins in the dark with about two minutes of orgasmic sounds. Soft lights up on the messy bed. Frankie, the waitress in a dive restaurant, and Johnny, its cook, will spend the rest of the night getting to know each other. These are difficult roles for a variety of reasons: The actors are naked or nearly naked through most of the play, they are never off stage, and they have to speak long, often corny monologues as if they meant them. But since both actors have so much vocal range and such a wealth of facial and physical gesture to draw on, they seem fully immersed in their characters, and so we are fully immersed in their story.

Much scholarly and criticial ink has been spilled debating whether this play is about a homosexual couple in disguise as a heterosexual couple, especially since McNally, who is gay, wrote it in 1987 during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It seems to me that if we have learned anything in the intervening years, it is that the gender of Frankie and Johnny needn’t matter: The search for love is universal, and a revival should have its own meaning in its own time. So their journey from sexual passion to tender intimacy as they sit side by side, brushing their teeth, watching the sun come up, is convincing — maybe hopeful, maybe not.

The set, designed by Riccardo Hernandez, is more interesting than the stock messy one-room apartment in Hell’s Kitchen; he gives us both the inside and the outside, an enormous façade of a tenament building with fire escapes and endless windows. In a sweet, funny touch, after the curtain call, McDonald and Shannon exit through the set’s bathroom door.

Theater

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune

Through Aug. 25 at the Broadhurst Theatre, 235 W. 44th Street, New York.