You don’t have to spend the night rolling in the sheets of an unkempt flat in Hell’s Kitchen to realize that modern romance is dead. All it takes is a good long look around to note that chivalry has lost its vim, and the only vigor that’s fashionable these days is the kind synthetically produced by Viagra.
So leave it to Terrence McNally, American playwright extraordinaire, to pen “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” a very real, very human love story about two middle-aged loners longing to connect.
It isn’t enough that Frankie and Johnny work together in a diner — she’s a waitress, he’s the new short-order cook. They’ve obviously been harboring an attraction to each other for the past six weeks and finally settled on a Saturday night date. But after sharing heated physical intimacy, it’s Johnny who strives for the emotional connection all night long.
It’s a little jarring for Frankie, a pragmatist forced into reality by a disappointing past, and the pair spend the evening bravely fighting for their happily ever after.
McNally’s 1987 script has undergone minor renovations since its 2002 revival and the 1991 film adaptation famously featuring Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino. Here, David Muse’s graceful direction allows both of his actors to display a unique and beautiful vulnerability that moves McNally’s words beyond the page and into a glorious masterpiece that is deeply moving and nearly profound.
Kate Buddeke and Vito D’Ambrosio are the living, breathing incarnations of Frankie and Johnny. She’s jaded and judgmental, he’s sincere and smitten, and both are such unlikely romantics that it’s difficult to imagine they will ever be able to move past their own flaws to find peace in the other. But with a deft sense of intimation — and a palpable spark of comic relief — both Buddeke and D’Ambrosio enchant us into believing their coupling was inarguably inevitable.
It speaks of McNally’s gift for realism, and between Muse’s careful direction (his actors always have something to do on stage) and Neil Patel’s realistic apartment setting, “Frankie and Johnny” unravels before us with a live cinematic quality. Even Johnny’s cooking tempts the senses — his western omelet wafts over the Kreeger Theater with the comforting appeal of the familiar.
He’s optimistic as he quotes Shakespeare to his trepid lover, and just when we begin to doubt that Frankie will ever feign need for the trills of Bach or Debussy, McNally’s beautifully written romance reminds us that it’s never too late to allow ourselves to be happy.
‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune’
By Terrence McNally
Through April 8
Director: David Muse
Venue: Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW, Washington
Tickets: $46 to $66
Performances: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Wednesdays and Sundays; 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; noon Wednesday and April 4
Info: 202-488-3300,
www.arenastage.org
