Donald Margulies’s Long Lost, at Manhattan Theater Club, could have easily become a soap opera or Lifetime-TV-movie. Black-sheep, middle-aged Billy arrives unannounced at the swanky office of his successful, estranged brother David during the Christmas holidays claiming he is dying of cancer and has nowhere to go after having destroyed all of his relationships. The manipulative Billy sows disaster wherever he goes, undermining David’s happy marriage to the self-possessed Molly and damaging his bond with his teenaged son Jeremy, just back from college.
This basic plot potentially reeks of cliche. But Margulies, whose in-depth studies of familial ties include the Pulitzer-winning Dinner with Friends, Sight Unseen, and The Loman Family Picnic, does not fall into the trap of making Billy a one-dimensional villain bent on destroying his sibling’s happiness. There are layers of deception within David’s seemingly idyllic lifestyle, and Billy is not as devious as he appears. Margulies shades his characters in life-like gradations of grey and drops tiny hints of plot which later explode with significance.
Daniel Sullivan provides a sturdy staging, keeping stereotypical histrionics to a minimum, thus affording each revelation maximum impact. John Lee Beatty’s tasteful set and Toni-Leslie James’s understated costumes aide here.
Lee Tergerson’s sneaky yet attractive Billy, Kelly AuCoin’s tightly wound David, Annie Parisse’s in-control yet repressed Molly, and Alex Wolff’s insecure Jeremy each display the outer shell of assurance and the quivering, uncertainty within.
