‘HE said I’ve lost my sense of humor?” screams Judd Hirsch in an incredulous rage. It’s one of the classically funny moments in ”Art,” the successful comedy of friendship by Yasmina Reza at the Royale.
The three-man play has a new cast, its third on Broadway, and it’s never been so good. In fact, the present trio of Judd Hirsch, George Wendt and Joe Morton achieve an ideal comic rhythm; they find a groove that’s just right for ”Art,” and they soar.
”Art” examines the stresses that an act of independence can bring to a friendship that had been a mentor-disciple relationship. When disciple Serge (Morton) buys an all-white, modernist painting for 200,000 francs (it’s all set in Paris), his disapproving guru Marc (Hirsch) bristles. Both Marc and Serge vent their hostilities on Yvan, the designated victim of the trio.
When ”Art” opened on Broadway, Marc was played by Alan Alda, Serge by Victor Garber and Yvan by Alfred Molina. All three gave smart, interesting performances, with Molina stealing the show as the put-upon Yvan. But the story seemed to be happening in a abstract space that was neither Paris nor New York; its characters had no local habitation or roots.
All that is changed. Despite the remaining references to francs, these guys are as American as the Super Bowl. They don’t, it is true, in their chic shades of gray, dress like Americans, but they move and sit and position themselves in rooms like Americans. And they talk like Americans; the rhythms of the pervasive profanity, the idiomatic flavor of the brutal exchanges, are local.
Judd Hirsch, who has had a long and distinguished career in theater and film, probably doesn’t want to be told that he’s best known as Alex Rieger on ”Taxi.” But such is the law of entertainment demographics. At any rate, he’s an ideal Marc. He radiates the right crisp, sharp, sarcastic, paranoid intelligence, eager to take offense, but blithely unconscious of giving it.
His explosions of contempt are at first shared by the audience – there’s a lot of laughter at Marc’s put-downs of the very notion of modern art – but later, when they get nasty and hurtful, we pull back. Marc’s final apology and his dreamy appreciation of the painting are oddly moving, and it’s all due to the compelling force of Hirsch’s craft.
George Wendt not only played Yvan in London, but has considerable stage experience. Unquestionably, though, he is, to most, Norm on ”Cheers.” Roly-poly Wendt’s lovable Yvan is the schlemiel of the group. While the other two have successful careers, Yvan is stuck in a stationery store. In the big canvas controversy, he has no fixed opinion and is used as a sounding board by the fighting duo. Yvan is the eternal third guy. When hefty Wendt gets down on his knees – take it easy, George – to grope around for the cap of his pen, we feel for him. This is our guy up there.
Serge is the least showy of the three roles, and also the least developed. His initial, defiant purchase of the offending painting starts the action, but we don’t learn a great deal more about him, actually. So it’s key that Serge, who tries to be sensible and smooth and polite and rational, should be played by an actor who can hold his own against Marc and Yvan. Joe Morton deploys a deft charm; he gives us an elegant man who doesn’t want to face the implications of what he’s done. He’d like to keep the bland, polished surfaces of the relationship un-scratched despite the dynamite he’s planted. Morton – whom I know best from his fine work in the films of John Sayles – gives us a Serge coolly whistling in the dark, a Serge in denial.
”Art,” it seems to me, has with this cast found its perfect form; it’s an expanded episode of a well-written TV sitcom about some friends.
”Art” by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton. At the Royale. With Judd Hirsch, Joe Morton, George Wendt. Directed by Matthew Warchus.