The Assembled Parties
I think I’m getting play fatigue. I have the privilege of seeing dozens of plays on a regular basis and so, I’m finding, the occasions on which I’m truly and thoroughly impressed by a play are becoming fewer and farther between. (Although, I did love the recently-opened The Call at Playwrights Horizons.) Richard Greenberg’s new family dramedy, The Assembled Parties , is emblematic of this fatigue. It isn’t bad, and there are some good elements, but just wasn’t spectacular. More of a character study than a plot-driven play, the titular assembled parties are members or friends of the Bascov family, a seemingly well-to-do Jewish family who live in a 14-room apartment on Central Park West. (Despite the presumed grandness of a 14-room apartment, Santo Loquasto’s scenic design is disappointingly generic.) We look in on these parties when they gather for Christmas dinner in 1980 (act one) and 2000 (act two). At rise, Julie Bascov (Jessica Hecht) is chatting with Jeff (Jeremy S...