Chris Rock (right) can’t hold his own with Bobby Cannavale. (Joan Marcus)
In his Broadway debut, Chris Rock plays Ralph D., the AA sponsor of Bobby Cannavale’s Jackie. They share some heavy scenes — red-blooded, profanity-laden bouts — but Rock is a lightweight: The more experienced, more assured Cannavale knocks him out without even trying.
This is a big problem because Stephen Adly Guirgis’ new dark comedy, “The Motherf**ker with the Hat,” pivots on the evolving relationship between the two. Rock’s tentative performance creates an imbalance that throws the show out of whack.
Guirgis, co-artistic director of the downtown company LAByrinth and author of several acclaimed plays (“Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train” among them), gives us a clash between romantics and cynics, and it’s clear whose side he’s on. But Rock’s lack of confidence makes the confrontation less affecting than it should be.
At the beginning, the luckless Jackie seems to have turned a corner: Out on parole and sober, he’s just landed a job. He’s about to celebrate with his druggie, motor-mouth girlfriend, Veronica (Elizabeth Rodriguez), when he sees a hat — not his own — in her room and suspects she’s having an affair.
This is enough pressure to send Jackie running to his sponsor.
That would be Ralph, a seeming goody-two-shoes who asks his wife, Victoria (Annabella Sciorra, “The Sopranos”), to “blender up my sponsee a nice nutritional beverage,” and talks happily about yoga, archery and French lessons.
“My life isn’t about bulls – – t and heartache no more,” he tells Jackie, “and yours doesn’t have to be either.”
Rock is adequate in that early scene, but the more we learn about Ralph, the more the comedian’s out of his depth. His one-note interpretation fails to exploit the full implications of Ralph’s philosophy: that sobriety somehow gives you a free pass.
After “August: Osage County,” director Anna D. Shapiro confirms her talent for handling both clever sets — this one’s a rotating marvel by Todd Rosenthal — and volatile yell-a-thons.
READ ABOUT THE SHOW’S DIRECTOR, ANNA D. SHAPIRO
And it takes confidence and skill not to be overwhelmed by Guirgis’ hyperactive and often very funny writing. Cannavale, Rodriguez and Yul Vázquez — hilarious as Cousin Julio, a health nut with a fondness for Jean-Claude Van Damme — are completely attuned to the writer’s uber-New York flow, reveling in its brash musicality.
Sadly, they’re not the ones people are paying to see.
elisabeth.vincentelli
@nypost.com