Blue Window, Craig Lucas' 1984 comedy-drama of loneliness and shifting relationships, has not lacked for revivals. Joe Mantello staged a well-received 1996 mounting of the play at its original home, Manhattan Theatre Club, and last year, the Barrow Group workshopped a revival for 16 performances.
According to spokespersons, the latter staging went well enough to warrant a commercial production, featuring most of the same cast members. Barbara Ann O'Connor, Michael Rafael and Cellar Door Productions are producing the remount of Blue Window, set to start previews July 2 and open July 10 at the 28th Street Theatre.
Marin Hinkle, on Broadway opposite Judd Hirsch in A Thousand Clowns and Off-Broadway opposite Michael Stuhlbarg in Tony Kushner's adaptation of A Dybbuk, plays hostess Libby in the ensemble cast [See the PBOL BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Hinkle, posted in the feature section].
Also starring are Hope Chernov as the self-absorbed novelist Alice (As Bees in Honey Drown), Marcia DeBonis as her despairing girlfriend Boo, Neal Huff as the hapless therapy addict Griever, Josh Stamberg as gruff musician Tom, Katy Hansz as his seemingly vacant girlfriend, and Jason Kolotouros as self-assured skydiver Norbert. Julia Gibson, who appeared as an actress in NYSF's Central Park Measure for Measure this summer, directs.
Blue Window takes place at an urban, urbane cocktail party—the kind often thrown during the 1980s—where a group of acquaintances, including a lesbian couple, subconsciously examine their lives and relationships as they partake in chit-chat and a tacky but lethal punch. Chekhovian in its rhythms, it looks at the collective loneliness of urbanites who seek but rarely find connection in the forced social activities they participate in. In a statement, author Lucas said the show explores, "How we get from Sunday to Monday." The Barrow Group is presented the play in MCC Theater small W. 28th Street space (the production is not connected with MCC in any way). The confined environs have forced Gibson to have one set of furnishings serve as five separate apartments at the beginning and end of the play, with the seven actors often crossing each other's paths while remaining in their dramatic locale.
The playwright, best known for penning Prelude to a Kiss, is currently collaborating with actor-dramatist David Schulner on This Thing of Darkness, to be staged at the Atlantic Theatre this-coming season. Lucas' last two Off-Broadway shows played at the Vineyard Theatre: 2000's Stranger and 1998's well-received The Dying Gaul. He also penned the script to the film "Longtime Companion," about gay friendships and the toll taken by AIDS.
Designing the show are Randall Parsons (set), Josh Bradford (lighting), Kaye Grunder (costumes) and Rob Kaplowitz (sound). For tickets and information on Blue Window at the 28th Street Theatre, 120 West 28th St., call (212) 206-1515.
—By Robert Simonson
and David Lefkowitz
