Babbitt, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Harman Hall, Washington, DC

 

The cast of Babbitt at Shakespeare Theatre Company (L to R): Matt McGrath, Ali Stroker, Ann Harada, Matthew Broderick, Nehal Joshi, Judy Kaye, Mara Davi, and Chris Myers.

Playwright Joe DiPietro (a two-time Tony winner as librettist and lyricist for his musical Memphis) has adapted Babbitt from the satirical Sinclair Lewis novel of the same name. Originally the result of a brainstorming session more than a decade ago among himself, actor Matthew Broderick, and director Christopher Ashley, to come up with a project that would give them a chance to work together. DiPietro scanned his bookshelf and came across a copy of Lewis’s novel, which set into motion all of the events that would lead to the arrival of DiPietro’s adaptation at DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. The play was previously produced in 2023 at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse (where Ashley is the current artistic director) with the same design team and several of the same cast members (including Broderick).

Full disclosure: I have read about but have not read the novel Lewis first published in 1922. This cautionary tale is every bit as uncomfortably timely now as it was when it first appeared.

When we first meet George Babbitt, he is the personification of mundanity. His everyday existence is of such mundane routine that when he breaks it (by using a guest towel after bathing, since all of the non-guest towels were wet), his world lurches in such a way that he decides to re-define himself. His world has been defined by his wife Irma, his young daughter Tinka and teenaged son Ted, his best friend from college Paul, and his associates at his mundane real estate firm. He has defined himself in his relationships with family and work associates as a socially and politically conservative man pursuing (and realizing, to a great extent) the American dream of financial success (a good job, a house, a car), and trying to instill the same goals in his son. (Babbitt decrees that his son must go to college and become a lawyer, though the teen is more interested in pursuing less-academic goals, including becoming a mechanic.) Having broken his routine, Babbitt realizes that he has not lived up to the potential that he once exhibited. He expands the reach of his audience, becoming a popular and respected speaker, even though he espouses racist and xenophobic rhetoric (part of the problem with big cities, he says, is their overpopulation of immigrants).

He is feeding his fellow citizens in the fictional setting of Zenith, which appears to be somewhere in the midwestern United States, just what they want to hear. (Does this sound familiar?) When events intrude (including his best friend, Paul, shooting his wife), Babbitt finds himself at odds with the local populace. He refuses to believe that Paul could have done such a thing and offers to commit perjury by testifying that Paul didn’t do it. Now taking a morally (and legally) incorrect role, he begins to spout even more socialist views, like that every worker should be paid a fair wage. Of course, this puts him at odds with most of the townspeople, whose lives are threatened by a labor strike.

Matthew Broderick in Babbitt at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.

Meanwhile, Babbitt’s wife Myra recognizes that her own life has lost a great deal of its meaning, falling under the spell of a woman who takes an almost-evangelistic stand that women should not define themselves by their status as wife. When Myra and daughter Tinka leave town for a visit to Myra’s sister, George “steps out” with a young dance instructor, but she ultimately tells him that he’s too old for her. When Myra faces a health emergency, George attends to her and recognizes that Myra is his fated partner.

Two-time Tony winner Matthew Broderick (for Brighton Beach Memoirs and a revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, but perhaps best known as the star of the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) makes George a rather awkward anti-hero. Whether Babbitt sincerely changes his beliefs or just makes adjustments so that he can “fit in,” Broderick gains our sympathy, even as we are revolted by some of his statements. What does he truly believe? We never know.

The remaining cast members are listed in the program as “Storyteller #1,” etc., up to #7. I would like to have had a complete listing of all of the characters undertaken by each of these actors. These “storytellers” create and move between interesting characters, sometimes filling us in on what will happen in the future, even as they expound on events as they unfold.

Ann Harada is both strong and sympathetic as Myra Babbitt, especially as she becomes more aware of the limitations of her circumstances. Tony winner Ali Stroker (Oklahoma!) is endearing as daughter Tinka, but also assumes a variety of other roles, including a defense attorney for Paul and an inebriated poet. Chris Myers stands out as Babbitt’s rebellious son but also pops up unexpectedly, including a short appearance as the young Italian romancing one of Zenith’s socialites (Judy Kaye). In addition to socialite Mrs. McKelvey, Kaye, another two-time Tony winner (The Phantom of the Opera and Nice Work If You Can Get It), is memorable as Babbitt’s secretary, the women’s self-help specialist, and an indignant Zenith citizen. Nehal Joshi is excellent, primarily serving as Babbitt’s best friend, philandering wife-shooter Paul. Matt McGrath makes his strongest impression as king-maker McKelvey. Mara Davi shines in her roles, including unhappy wife and shooting victim Zilla, as well as the dance instructor with whom Babbitt has his affair.

Mara Davi and Matthew Broderick in Babbitt at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.

Ashley directs with economy, making highly effective use of stage turntables, much as he did in his Tony and Helen Hayes Award-winning direction of Come From Away. Stephen Buescher’s choreography (primarily for Davi and Broderick) is witty as the uncoordinated and aging Babbitt gains confidence as a dancer.

Upon entering Sidney Harman Hall for the performance, the stage setting (designed by Walt Spangler) is striking: numerous library-like bookshelves and other surfaces, filled with books, which are perused by the storytellers in silence before the play begins. It is a very powerful visual impression, though it never seems to be made significant as the production unfolds. At the end of the play, Myra gets a library card and the storytellers read what I assume are the final passages of the novel from copies they carry, a not-so-subtle reminder that what we are seeing is an adaptation of a book. Tony-winning costume designer Linda Cho (The Great Gatsby) creates useful and period-appropriate basic costumes for each of the storytellers that are often altered by the addition of accessories (an apron, a high school letter jacket, a striped prison tunic, a fur stole) to help identify changes. Cha See’s lighting design alters the appearance of the originally all-white setting to suit the action or the mood. Mark Bennett and Wayne Barker provide original music that helps set the stage while remaining unobtrusive. Leon Rothenberg (sound design) and Charles G. Lapointe (wig and hair design) also make significant contributions to the proceedings.

Is a Broadway run in Babbitt’s future? This cast is certainly Broadway-worthy and it certainly covers topical themes with the right pedigree. Meanwhile, DC area audiences can see this meticulous production and its star-powered performances through November 3.

 

The cast of Babbitt at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.