Review: Stephen Karam and Simon Godwin Drag THE CHERRY ORCHARD Kicking and Screaming Into The 21st Century

"A New Version by Stephen Karam" is the way the text is described in the credits for director Simon Godwin's production of Anton Chekhov's 1904 classic The Cherry Orchard, now being presented by Roundabout Theatre. Words like "translation" and "adaptation" are noticeably set aside.

And while the playwright who penned the 2016 Tony winner and Pulitzer finalist THE HUMANS hasn't exactly performed major surgery on one of the doctor-turned-playwright's masterworks - despite a streamlined script that mixes contemporary American English with the highbrow tongue of a hundred years ago - it may have been preferable for him to go ahead and create a completely new version of the story.

As it stands now, the production at the American Airlines Theatre seems to be struggling to pull The Cherry Orchard from the 20th to the 21st Century as much as one of the play's main characters struggles to pull the others from the 19th to the 20th.

A fine example of the old adage that there's nothing more tragic than a Russian comedy, the play is set in and around the family estate occupied by Madame Ranevskaya (Diane Lane), her brother Gaev (John Glover) and the Madame's two daughters, biological Anya (Tavi Gevinson) and adopted Varya (Celia Keenan-Bolger).

The first act opens with Ranevskaya returning from Paris, where she's spent the past five years; initially in morning for her young son who drowned, and then living with a new lover. In her absence, the family's finances have plummeted and the estate, including its acclaimed cherry orchard, is set to be auctioned off to pay the mortgage.

Lopakhin (Harold Perrineau), a successful self-made businessman who Chekhov created as the son and grandson of serfs who worked on Ranevskaya's property, proposes a partnership that would allow the family to remain in their home by chopping down the orchard and putting up cottages that can be rented by summer tourists. The lady of the house and her brother find the very thought vulgar and unacceptable, and naively believe they can somehow finesse out of trouble.

Traditionally, Ranevskaya is considered the emotional heart of The Cherry Orchard, with Lopakhin seen as an unlikable opportunist, but while Lane certainly displays the requisite elegance, it's Perrineau's energetic, charismatic and very contemporary Lopakhin that grabs the sympathy, especially since the actor is African-American and, instead of serfs, Karam has him describe his father and grandfather as slaves.

This is the clearest point made in a production that appears to be full of ideas that don't quite blend into a unit. The best invention of designer Scott Pask's minimalist set (Calder-style mobiles are used to represent cherry trees) is that the floor of the stage is covered with what looks like a full slice of an enormous tree's bark, its rings a continual reminder of the line of generations that have lived on the property. Unfortunately, the striking visual is likely to go unseen by most viewers in the orchestra section.

Costume designer Michael Krass seems intent on having styles grow increasingly modern, a reasonably symbolic touch, but the evolution doesn't always look consistent.

A fine company of actors gives individual performances that rarely seem fully connected to one another. John Glover's Gaev is a suitable eccentric aristocrat and Joel Grey offers tender dignity as Firs, the aging butler with faded memories of a nobler past. There are some good laughs provided by Susannah Flood as the excitable chambermaid Dunyasha and Tina Benko as the grim governess Charlotta, the child of circus performers who's good for an occasional card trick or magic act, but Godwin gives Chuck Cooper too many silly bits to do as cash-poor landowner Simeonov-Pischik, particularly one cheap sight gag that plays off the actor's size.

The evening's greatest emotional impact comes from Keenan-Bolger, who offers another in her growing resume of sincere and heart-tugging stage performances as the older sister devoted to the happiness of her sibling at the expense of her own. Having to be the strong, responsible one in a world where everyone expects the best to be handed to them, she makes the scene where life hands her character the cruelest of disappointments a devastating and memorable moment.

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