Paul Rudnick is one of the funniest men in America, but he has yet to write a completely satisfying play.
“Jeffrey,” “Valhalla,” and “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told” were packed with wonderful one-liners, and an appealingly cockeyed view of contemporary sexual relations, but the gags never really came together as plays.
Rudnick has a new production that just opened at Lincoln Center — “The New Century” — and it might be his most insubstantial play yet, but the first of the four scenes features Linda Lavin in an awesome display of comic timing that makes the whole thing worth seeing.
Lavin is alone on stage during “Pride and Joy,” as long-suffering Long Island matron Helene Nadler, who is chairing a meeting of a support group for parents of sexually offbeat children (we go far beyond the notions of gay and lesbian when Helene talks about the proclivities of her three children — one is a young man who has a sex change only to discover that “she” is a lesbian).
The material is funny, but Lavin puts it across sensationally, with every look, every pause, every inflection resulting in explosive laughter. Like a great stand-up comedian, Lavin is able to include perfectly timed pauses during the laughter so that we don’t miss a single line.
Lavin is, of course, nationally known for her work on TV and in movies, but she has also been honing her craft on stage in dramas, comedies and musicals for more than 40 years. Her work in Charles Busch’s “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” seven years ago was one of the funniest performances I’ve ever seen in the theatre, but Lavin had a great character to play and wonderful people to play off (including that old pro Tony Roberts).
Alone on stage in “The New Century” Lavin as Helene is a world unto herself and she makes Rudnick’s far from fresh material into a major theatrical event.
