Theater review | Anger makes "A Thousand Clowns" a more ambivalent play

Theater Review |

As free spirits go, Murray Burns in Herb Gardner's 1962 play "A Thousand Clowns" is a cranky and curmudgeonly one.

He adores Nick, the precocious 12-year-old nephew he is raising. And he's fond of Sandy, a sweetly befuddled social worker he romances.

And Murray takes childlike glee in frequent visits to the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty — which few other native New Yorkers would be caught dead doing.

But in the Intiman airing of "A Thousand Clowns" staged by Sari Ketter, another trait of Murray's strongly emerges: He's one angry guy.

If you saw and loved "A Thousand Clowns" in the 1960s, when it was a hit Broadway play and movie, you may recall Murray's railing against "squares" and "phonies" as wacky whimsy. Or, like Holden Caufield's war on phoniness in "A Catcher in the Rye," as a righteous cause.

But as played by Matthew Boston at Intiman, Murray's eccentric charm is tinged with resentment, even rage. And when he throws open a window in his one-room apartment, and barks orders to his neighbors like a crazed camp counselor, he's lucky nobody calls the cops.

Since the later 1960s, kooks and slackers have become such ubiquitous pop-culture figures, they've maybe lost some of their heroic cachet. And by design or not, Boston's high-strung, high-pitched portrayal exposes the torments in a man whose only options in life seem to be totally selling out, or completely dropping out.

Selling out means writing gags for Leo Herman (the scary-good Tim Hyland), an obnoxious kiddie-TV-show star riddled with neuroses.

But dropping out means losing Nick (crackerjack young Seattle actor Nick Robinson) to foster care.

Yes, "A Thousand Clowns" is still as stuffed with snappy wisecracks as Murray's beloved deli sandwiches are with hot pastrami.

Some of the best are delivered with deadpan acuity by Robinson's Nick, who does his best to snow the child-welfare investigators, and give his Uncle Murray a lesson or two in maturity.

Director Ketter also concocts amusing stage business to fine effect. She turns the morning-after shyness of Sandra (winsome Julie Jesneck) into a bit of sweet, under-the-covers slapstick.

But long before Murray's "square" brother Arnold (solid David Pichette) tells him off for being, well, a narcissistic creep, you might have noticed that yourself.

And that characteristic reveals "A Thousand Clowns" as a more sour, but interestingly ambivalent play than you might be expecting — and a less warm and whimsical one.

At nearly three hours, the show has its musty and stilted moments. And it takes some getting used to Boston's frenetic spin on Murray — miles from the wry, laconic Murray played by Jason Robards Jr. on Broadway and film.

A turning point arrives when Boston's face reflects the fear that he might actually lose the only person he's committed to. And lose him not just because he hates the rat race, but because he's not big on the human race either.

The cast is rounded out by Bradford Farwell, who musters empathy for Albert, the uptight city bureaucrat who brings bad news.

And the tchotchkes and grungy décor in Nayna Ramey's apartment set are spot on. But where's the screen that separates Murray's sleeping area and Nick's? Even rebels like a little privacy.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com