I was not quite so amused. There were a handfull of fine lines and good jokes. My favorite, which I shall actually remember, came when a character who seemed to be mentally and socially challenged, but skilled in mechanics, remarked of his classmates in the vocational school he was sent to, that the students were all idiots. The apparently very well educated, distinguished poet beside him then remarked that in his own case, his teachers were all idiots.
This play is an American version of a distinguished Norwegian novel, play and movie. Two mentally/socially challenged older men are sent from a mental institution to learn to function in the real world.
There are several problems with this American stage version, which seems (without knowing its history) to be hastily thrown together without solving its dramatic problems.
Coincidentally, I just watched an episode of Theater Talk on TV in which Cherry Jones remarks how much a play can and should change over time as the actors really begin to understand it. Given the success of the Norwegian original, I suspect that a visit from a play-doctor, and some more time to solve the problems could generate a much better play.
There are two main characters, Elling (Denis O'Hare), a small, fussy older man who lived with his mother all his life, until she died, and Kjell Bjarne (Brendan Fraser), a large, older man, a virgin who is obsessed with women and sex, but does not understand how social relations work. (He proposed to a woman with his pants off. She called police. That's how he arrives at the mental institution to room with Elling, to start the play.) They both seem so mentally incompetent that nothing that happens later is believable.
If they are really as disfunctional as they seem, only the most brilliant psychological therapy would have the slightest chance of rehabilitating them. If there is actually a healthy guy inside each socially/mentally/wounded body (which is what the action of the play requires) then the acting and some of the writing is just too broad, too campy, too much caricature and too inaccurate to carry the story believably. For the rest of the play, then, most of the jokes must be shtick, not human humor.
A second problem which makes the play confusing is that all the acting behavior seems quintessentially American, yet every once in a while the characters say something to remind us that they are Norwegians in Norway. It is a disconnect.
In a similar vein, there are some ethnic, racial, and similar remarks that may be funny in Norway but just seemed unpleasant to me.
Having all the women in the play -- a nurse, a waitress, a poet, and a pregnant neighbor, who are really very different characters -- played by the same actress (Jennifer Coolidge) further confuses the story, because it seems to suggest a through-line between the various women and their relationships with the two men. I think, in fact, a strong contrast between the women and how they relate to the men would be more helpful to the play.
I hope, as the play plays out, the characterizations will mellow out and become more realistic. (Cherry Jones in the interview I mentioned above suggests that anyone who sees a preview of a play should be given a voucher to come back and see the play again in a few months... after it has matured.) The second act, in fact, is better than the first act. And the pictures from the play, shown in this story, suggest a more spot-on human interpretation of the characters than was evident in the too-over-the-top "theatrical" acting at the preview I attended.
In any case, ELLING is a pleasant, amusing (to a degree depending on your taste) holiday show, with a fundamentally uplifting character arc.
The best thing about the play is seeing familiar actors on the stage. I've always liked Brendan Fraser, the very popular movie star; Jennifer Coolidge has been a favorite of mine since Legally Blonde; and Denis O'Hare is starring in True Blood at the moment, and was the subject of an extended profile in the NYT.
If the actors come out after the show and say "Hello" to the theatergoers at the Stage Door, that would be an added attraction.
THE OFFICIAL SITE:
http://ellingonbroadway.com/
BRENDAN FRASER WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Fraser
DENIS O'HARE WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_O
DENIS O'HARE NYT PROFILE
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/theater/14ohare.html
JENNIFER COOLIDGE WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Coolidge
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