Thunder, lightning: A star deserves a grand entrance, and Bette Davis gets one in Craig Lucas’ new two-hander, “The Lying Lesson.”
The show zooms off to a dramatic start when an older woman (Carol Kane) lets herself into a house during a dark and stormy Maine night. She introduces herself as Ruth Elizabeth to the caretaker, Minnie Bodine (Mickey Sumner — Sting’s daughter, and yes, Mickey plays Minnie).
When Ruth Elizabeth coyly reveals that she’s better known as Bette Davis, Minnie, unimpressed, muddles her name: “Who the heck is Bette David?”
You can see why she wouldn’t know better: Lucas (“Prelude to a Kiss,” the book for “The Light in the Piazza”) set the action in July 1981, when Davis’ glory days were behind her.
Still, there’s something odd about Minnie’s sullen lack of interest in the Hollywood icon — who has a past in the small town, the kind where the best doughnuts are at the gas station. What hides behind Minnie’s blank stare fuels the show’s May-December bickering.
The Atlantic Theater describes this production as a “comic thriller,” but it’s a far cry from either. Only those who considered “Murder, She Wrote” white-knuckle suspense would find the show remotely gripping. Pam MacKinnon’s glacially paced staging and the lopsided casting don’t help.
Sumner’s appearance is striking — she has the sharp looks of a younger, gawkier Cate Blanchett — but her performance is less so. The most noteworthy thing about it is the put-on Maine accent. That’s just not good enough to make her a worthy foil for her more experienced partner.
The Bette Davis role is pretty juicy, but Kane, who was on Broadway last year in “Harvey,” is refreshingly restrained. She doesn’t even play off her distinctive voice, which she’s often pushed to screechy heights in the past.
That doesn’t prevent Kane from having fun with her few zingers: “Just because someone has died doesn’t mean they’ve changed,” Davis sniffs, explaining why her loathing for the late Joan Crawford hasn’t abated.
Overall, though, it’s hard to tell what Lucas is trying to say.
Partly, the show seems to be about figuring out who you are. Davis makes a distinction between her self as Ruth Elizabeth — her real name — and her public persona. Minnie progressively reveals her hidden agenda, which doesn’t amount to much.
And it’s all so muddled. The two women keep talking about people we never meet and don’t care about. Mystifyingly, they read lines from Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck.”
When Davis is seen roasting a whole turkey, you idly wonder: Who does that in summer? This may not be the kind of question Lucas hoped to raise.