Julia Bray (from left), Byron Jennings, Carolyn McCormick and Michael McCarty all do a great acting job as the actors in “Ten Chimneys.” (AP)
‘Whenever we talk about the theater, we’re talking about love,” Lynn Fontanne declares in Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Ten Chimneys,” about the actress and her onstage and offstage love, Alfred Lunt.
But while the play is a love letter to the theater and these actors in particular, the real Lunt and Fontanne probably would have turned up their noses if asked to perform it.
The play’s set largely in 1937 at Ten Chimneys, the rustic Wisconsin estate where the Lunts — Byron Jennings and Carolyn McCormick — spent their summers and ultimately retired. (It’s now a tourist attraction.)
Rehearsing for an upcoming production of Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” they’re soon joined by two other members of the cast — a very young Uta Hagen (Julia Bray) and the rotund, rumble-voiced character actor Sydney Greenstreet (Michael McCarty).
Also on hand are Alfred’s domineering mother, Hattie (Lucy Martin), and his half-siblings Carl (John Wernke) and Louise (Charlotte Booker), who hover on the sidelines, much like the servants in “The Seagull.”
The Chekhov drama inspires whatever slight tension there is in this otherwise frothy piece, with a budding attraction between Alfred and a sexually aggressive Uta threatening the insecure Lynn. But after one angry encounter, the matter is barely referred to again.
There are also underdeveloped subplots involving Carl’s gambling troubles, Sydney’s despair over his institutionalized, mentally ill wife and Alfred’s offstage reunion with an old college roommate with whom, it’s implied, he had an affair.
Tellingly, the best moments are those that focus not on the Lunts’ personal lives but on their acting. Rehearsing a scene from “The Seagull,” they repeat their lines over and over again, each time more speedily, in an effort to get it exactly right. It beautifully illustrates the hard work behind the technical proficiency for which they were renowned.
The always elegant Jennings and the beautiful McCormick have a wonderful chemistry together — which shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows they’re a married couple in real life, too. McCarty is terrific as Greenstreet, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance, and Bray is convincing as an impossibly young Uta Hagen. Director Dan Wackerman’s polished staging features striking sets by Harry Feiner, depicting the titular estate both inside and out.
But despite all the effort involved, “Ten Chimneys” contains more smoke than fire.