Review of The Waverly Gallery, starring Elaine May, on Broadway

Entering the Golden Theatre to see The Waverly Gallery, with Elaine May, I could not help but be reminded that a few months ago I was in that same theatre to see Three Tall Women featuring another octogenarian, Glenda Jackson. The comparison is not without merit, although the two characters these fine actors portray are light years apart. One is a laser sharp chronicler of life and the other is, well, falling to pieces as we watch. And, although it is a sad slide, watching Ms. May navigate the splotchy fading verbal path down which Gladys Green is careening is a thing of rare and exquisite beauty.

I never knew anything was the matter, Gladys tells her grandson Daniel (Lucas Hedges). This seems to be the recurring thought that slides in and out of the doorways and windows, from underneath the beds, and dropped in through the mail slot. It is a condition that is familial. No one "knows" anything is the matter with Gladys until the horse is out of the barn wandering about in the north pasture.

By the time we are invited on this journey, Gladys is already in decline. Even so, she is still managing the Waverly Gallery off Washington Square. She has been doing this for over 2 decades. And while this is 1989, Gladys would prefer it was the 60's when she was vibrant and life was filled with parties and people.

Her daughter Ellen (Joan Allen) lives uptown on the West Side with her second husband Howard (David Cromer). Gladys is a regular at their apartment on Wednesday nights for dinner, and this is where we first see the entire family together. Here the alarm bells are in full-throated voice with Gladys repeating herself on subjects that have formed a rut in her memory bank but are of no interest to anyone else. But not loud enough. For some reason she is still being left on her own to navigate her life. This includes taking her own medication, remembering to eat, and walking from her West Village to The Waverly Gallery around the corner.

Into this mix, for some reason, is dropped a lost soul, Don Bowman (Michael Cera). Don is a painter from Lynn, Massachusetts who is looking for a gallery to take his work. He has had no luck until now. Gladys not only provides a friendly ear, but she provides him with a tour of her life and the gallery and, more importantly, a place to hang his work. And not for nuthin' - he gets a tiny room to sleep in while he looks for something better that is certain not to come along. Why Don is in this story is never made clear.

From here we pretty much chug down hill. Gladys' edges fray more and more with each scene, as do the nerves of her daughter in particular. Daniel - who speaks directly to the audience from time to time - lives in the same apartment building as Gladys and is witness to the daily details that reveal his grandmother's undoing.

The dialogue has a beautiful rhythm to it as the planets around Gladys both reflect and revile her. This is not something they want to be part of. It is too painful to look at. It is too painful to look away. Repetitions devolve into resignation. Gladys speaks in wisps of logic that are only connected because they slip out of her mind and into her mouth. With each utterance the family is presented with a fresh alarm that they must handle. And with each step they take together they are reminded of their own mortality and the passages that have yet to be discovered.

The plot, however, lands with a thud. We meet Gladys when she has already showing signs of dementia, and her ultimate fate is only degrees away. This Gladys is already beyond reach. And yet she is let on her own with only her grandson as a daily observer. He admits to us that he has begun to avoid her: It's not that I didn't like her. I did. It's just that once you went in there, it was kind of tough getting out again. So I was pretty stingy with the visits. The family is beyond slow on the uptake, and the presence of Don is without purpose. Who is leading this parade? No one.

In addition, why do we never see the Gladys who was? Her vibrance and daring are only things of legend - ones told to the artist Don Bower for no apparent reason (for our edification of course). Having been through this with both my parents I know that part of the heartache is not only dealing with the crazy-making details of monitoring the details of the needed care. It is also remembering who this person used to be. It is that confluence that sets your world teetering off its axis. Seeing what Ms. May conjured up as a woman in decline, I can only imagine how she would have gloried as a woman in her good old days. As it is, many of the scenes feel concocted.

And finally, this play ended way before it ended. In a poignant departure from a Wednesday night dinner after a kerfuffle that got out of hand she says, I don't understand what happened! Herb and I had a good life! We had a good life.. !... I don't understand what happened to me. What is left to say after that?

Not much, but the story stretches out for another 20-30 minutes during which there is no new news. The play eventually stops because Gladys does. This is a puzzling and disappointing final-final.

Still, Elaine May is the real deal and worth the trip. You will not forget watching her make magic.

^{(Photo by Brigitte Lacombe)}

What the popular press says...

"From the moment Gladys Green opens her mouth — which is the moment that the curtain rises on Kenneth Londergan's wonderful play The Waverly Gallery at the Golden Theater — it's clear that for this garrulous woman, idle conversation isn't a time killer. It is a lifeline... That it's Elaine May who is giving life to Gladys's war against time lends an extra power and poignancy to The Waverly Gallery, which opened on Thursday night under Lila Neugebauer's fine-tuned direction."
Ben Brantley for New York Times

"In this moving play, one gets a sense of Lonergan committing his family history to the record, making hard truth into beauty, so it doesn't just disappear."
Adam Feldman for Time Out New York

"May brings her comic genius to the role of Gladys, and that very off-center, always marvelously skewed approach to the text goes a long way toward making the character much less of a trial for us in the audience than she is supposed to be for the characters around her."
Robert Hofler for The Wrap

"What a pleasure to see improv queen Elaine May, erstwhile half of a legendary comedy double-act with Mike Nichols, back on Broadway after 50-plus years at 86, her timing as sharply idiosyncratic as ever. Even for those of us who know her acerbic style only from recordings, movies and playwriting, there's a special satisfaction in watching this influential humorist perform. She's alternately funny, maddening and heartbreaking as a longtime Greenwich Village fixture whose mind is deteriorating faster than her body in Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery."
David Rooney for Hollywood Reporter

"In 1989, Greenwich Village was still the kind of place where a nice old lady like Gladys Green could own and operate an art gallery for unknown artists who never sold a painting to impoverished patrons who never came. Played with great warmth, sensitivity, and good humor by the legendary Elaine May in the Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery, Gladys was once a practicing attorney with plenty of clients and a busy social life. These days, she's happy just to have an occasional lost soul drop by."
Marilyn Stasio for Variety

External links to full reviews from popular press...

New York Times - Time Out - The Wrap - Hollywood Reporter - Variety