AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

There are the hints of two or maybe even three fine plays in Jeffrey Sweet's Flyovers, which opened last night at the Upper West Side's 78th Street Theatre Lab. Taking its title from the pejorative used by West and East Coast bigshots to describe the folks who live in the vast section of the country that's generally only seen from plane windows, Sweet's play looks at what happens when Oliver (Richard Kind), a nationally-known film critic based in New York with his own television show, returns to his home town in Ohio, true flyover territory, for a high school reunion.

On one level, the play explores the lingering wounds that Oliver feels from the incessant bullying he suffered at the hands of Ted (Kevin Geer) in school. Despite any lingering wariness that Oliver has, he's stopped over at Ted's house where they reminisce about their time in school together, and Ted wavers between awe and disdain over how successful Oliver has become. While Ted consumes beers that he pulls out of a cooler and pours copious amounts of vodka for his guest, Iris (Michele Pawk), another old school mate arrives. Whereas theatergoers may sense that the tension that exists between the two guys could lead to the sort of fireworks one would find in a Sam Shepard play, there's a sort of sexual or romantic electricity that flows between Iris and Oliver. While these dual energies are understandable, it's a little difficult to understand why Iris and Ted seem so awkward around one another and why Ted seems so disconcerted when Lianne (Donna Bullock), his emotionally disturbed wife, shows up unexpectedly.

Sweet's dialogue can be zestful and the dynamics of the relationships and the characters' acknowledged, and unacknowledged, biases and attitudes are certainly the stuff of taut drama. For instance, audiences sense Ted's anti-Semitism throughout, and Oliver's unwitting arrogance about his success not only makes those around him uncomfortable, but can cause playgoers to bristle.

Unfortunately, director Sandy Shinner's staging, which seeks to prefigure the final moments of the script, never unifies the various elements of Sweet's play, which are all directly dependent on one another but at the same time, feel as if they might contain enough material for an individual script. Similarly, each of the fine actors are turning in performances that are immaculately detailed and filled with nuance, but there are times when they are straining against their castmates, and though, Flyovers ultimately resolves itself neatly, albeit with one tantalizing ambiguity, it's never a fully satisfying theatrical flight.

---- Andy Propst

Flyovers plays at the 78th Street Theatre Lab (236 West 78th Street). Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday and Monday at 7pm. Tickets are $18.00 and can be purchased by calling 212-868-4444 or by visiting www.smarttix.com.