Images: 
Total Rating: 
**3/4
Opened: 
Fall 2002
Ended: 
December 2002
Country: 
USA
State: 
New York
City: 
New York
Company/Producers: 
New York Shakespeare Festival / Joseph Papp Public Theater (George C. Wolfe, artistic director).
Theater Type: 
off-Broadway
Theater: 
Public Theater
Theater Address: 
425 Lafayette Street
Genre: 
Satire
Author: 
David Mamet
Director: 
Karen Kohlhaas
Review: 

A note on the just-closed Boston Marriage by David Mamet: This attempt at a 19th-Century comedy of manners dotted with deliberate anachronisms is Mamet's shot at Wilde, and it wildly misses. Occasional humorous quip aside, this style experiment falls short, as does the acting of Kate Burton. She says all the lines quite clearly, but her foil, Martha Plimpton, does better (the latter also has an inner life for her character).

Period costumes by Walt Spangler for this unromantic, basically same-sex, romance are fine, but as directed by Karen Kohlhaas, Boston Marriage is an exterior rendition of a flawed play that could have used some real juice rather than mere recitation. The third character, the maid, is played by Arden Myrin, who does her best but is miscast, and so can only take it so far.

Cast: 
Kate Burton, Martha Plimpton, Arden Myrin
Technical: 
Costumes: Walt Spangler.
Critic: 
Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed: 
December 2002