The Year of Magical Thinking (Friday 4/6)

Reservations (both before and after) aside: fundamentally, I had to have this. Vanessa Redgrave's turn as Mary Tyrone several seasons ago remains one of the great performances I've seen onstage -- heartbreaking, maddening, intense, chillingly still, everything I could want. I don't know how many chances I'll have to see her again (I missed the apparently hideous Hecuba a couple of years ago), so ... I was there, row K on the aisle, at the Booth last Friday. (So was Ralph Fiennes, which was hilarious, since last summer I saw Miss Redgrave in the audience in that theater when Mr. Fiennes was being sensational in Faith Healer!)

Anyway, the play. Well, it's not much of a play. I've not read Miss Didion's book, but she's not exactly a born dramatist. What may well be compelling and fascinating as a read hasn't been fully reconceived as a dramatic experience. And as many reviewers have already pointed out, Miss Redgrave is a different animal: big, intense, emotional. Making that intersect with Didion's hypercontrolled, self-aware style and observations produces something only fitfully impressive. But there are wonderful moments, some of them verbal (when the big feeling flashes through) and many of them visual (when she stands and turns, presenting us with a book or a bracelet). Beautifully lit and sound-designed. Worth it, in the end.