Review: YOU'RE MY BOY at Abbey Theater Of Dublin

Playwright Herb Brown faces an uphill battle in his play, You're My Boy when trying to give audiences at the Abbey Theater of Dublin (5600 Post Road in Dublin, Ohio) a “better understanding” of Richard Milhouse Nixon.

The run of shows from June 6-15 marked the 20th anniversary of You're My Boy, which had its world premiere in 2005 at what was then the Contemporary American Theatre Company (CATCO). Director Joseph Bishara, who has produced three of Brown’s plays, and Daniel Rodriguez Hijo find ways to put on an engaging political thriller, a history lesson with heart.

Many came into the play with preset ideas on Nixon’s legacy. In an article for the History News Network, Al Carrol ranked Nixon as the worst president in U.S. history. A Verdict article, written by John Dean, the former counsel to Nixon (1970-73), was titled ominously, Nixon Was Evil.

In Brown’s script, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a virtuoso performance by Todd Covert, confesses, “I don’t really know who Dick Nixon is.”

Thanks to a consummate performance by Scott Douglas Wilson and Brown’s eye-opening script, Abbey Theater of Dublin spectators got to see Nixon as a deeply flawed, yet incredibly driven politician rather than the demagogue he’s normally pictured as.

The play seems to be divided into two parts. The first act could be subtitled “Be careful what you wish for …” and the second act could be called “… because you might get it.”

In the first act, Nixon maneuvers his way to be one of the contenders to be Ike Eisenhower’s running mate in the 1952 Presidential campaign. Thomas E. Dewey (Jacob Erney) of the “Dewey Defeats Truman” fame, stokes Nixon’s ambition to look even further into the future. He tells him, “Don’t get fat, don’t lose your zeal and you can be President (once Eisenhower’s reign is done).” Adviser Murray Chotiner (a slimy performance by Phil Cunningham) also strokes Nixon’s ego and smooths out his worries as he wheels and deals behind the scenes to make sure the California senator is nominated.

While those two push Nixon forward, the man who would be king receives push back from Sherman Adams (Brad Barbin), Eisenhower’s political Svengali who has reservations about Nixon. Even Eisenhower seems to have his doubts, putting Nixon through a series of loyalty tests and mind games to see if he is worthy of being the VP.

The tests increase Nixon’s self-doubt. At one point, he asks Chotiner, “Is Ike really interested in me? He hasn’t asked to see me. Hasn’t even called.”

In the second act, Nixon finds out that being second banana to Eisenhower isn’t all it was cracked up to be. Eisenhower uses him to do things he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty doing. Nixon is asked to silence Joseph McCarthy and fire the people the President can’t bring himself to terminate.

At the same time, Nixon begins to doubt his value to the President and worries he won’t even be asked back to run when Eisenhower seeks reelection.  After he suffers a heart attack, the President makes sure Nixon knows while the Vice President may be acting as the leader of the free world while Eisenhower recuperates, Adams is the one wields the power.

Even after playing a subservient role, Nixon isn’t even sure he will get support from his boss when he tries to run against John F. Kennedy in the 1960 Presidential election. Nixon bristles when a reporter asked Eisenhower, “Can you name a major contribution of Nixon’s?” and Eisenhower responds, “If you give me a week I might think of one.”

The cat and mouse games between Nixon and Eisenhower are brilliantly brought to life by Wilson and Covert.

Wilson has gone from playing one of the most popular presidents (Franklin D. Roosevelt in Brown’s WINDS OF WAR) to acting as one of the least popular in Nixon. Wilson continues to reinvent himself for each role he’s cast in, but in YOU’RE MY BOY, he outdoes himself. He captures Nixon physically with his hunched over shoulders and frantic pacing. He captures him vocally with his gruff, gravelly growl, his even cadence, and the way he constantly refers to himself in the third person. Most importantly, Wilson captures Nixon emotionally, with his nervous tics, his pendulum mood swings, his need to be respected, and his paranoia when he believes he isn’t.

Likewise Covert has gone from trying to kill Nixon (twice playing the role of Sam Byck, who fails in his attempt to slay Nixon in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins in 2014 and 2018) to being someone who just simply wants to undermine him in You're My Boy. Covert conveys Eisenhower’s ability to shift from being a no-nonsense, five-star general during World War II to being the 34th President. At times, Eisenhower appears to be the distant father, preying on Nixon’s neediness to please while harboring his ambitions. Even when Eisenhower whispers to Nixon, “You’re my boy” near the end of the first act, Covert hesitates to trust “Tricky Dick.”

Samantha Woodill shows the complexity of Pat Nixon, who is the play’s voice of reason. She supports her husband’s ambition but at the same time, hates the games her husband must play to become Vice President.

When Nixon confides to his wife, “I need you and together we can do anything. Buddy, we’re a team.” Woodill retorts, “We’re not. You and Chotiner are the team” as she buries her head in her hands. The actress presents the world weariness of Pat Nixon, who must play a role on the campaign trail she doesn’t feel comfortable playing. She tells her husband, “I have sacrificed everything to advance your career. It’s like being an extra back in Hollywood. Don’t speak, hit your mark, and for God’s sake, don’t screw up when the camera’s on.”

Barbin, Cunningham and Erney seem to relish their roles as the slick movers and shakers behind this game of thrones. Each of the power brokers learn the closer they get to the crucible of power, the more likely they are to get burned.

After the curtain call, a member of the audience stuck out his hand to Brown and said, “I feel like I understand Nixon a little bit better.”

That was the biggest compliment Brown could have asked for.