Trish Deitch

It’s early in the run, and it’s possible that Gold spent less time with his actors on the second act of the play. But it’s also possible that it takes real genius to pull off the death scene in “Romeo and Juliet.” The audience has to believe that these are not just two children caught up in the early days of first love, but that they’re fated by the Gods and the universe to have met and to have died. What we have here instead is a fun night out and a hangover.

“Uncle Vanya” is a very dark play. And yet, under Neugebauer’s direction — and played by a cast featuring Steve Carell, William Jackson Harper, Anika Noni Rose, Alfred Molina and Alison Pill — every moment of this production shimmers with beauty, mirth, and, at least for the audience, hope. Despite the terrible state of things, art is still able to lift us up, take us out of our misery, and move us.

There are standout performances. Mop-headed Ali Louis Bourzgui, who plays Tommy as a young adult, has stage presence and good pipes, and Alison Luff, playing Tommy’s mother, Mrs. Walker, brings real grit to her one solo, “Smash the Mirror.” Maybe if you’d missed the ’70s, when The Who’s exceptional album stirred the hearts of kids making enough noise to change the world, you wouldn’t care that this production of “Tommy” is basically for old people, and not for a new generation.

There is an attempt, near the end of the show, to add meaning and depth to the story’s otherwise surface-level emotions. Eventually we’re told that the things we’re attached to from the past keep us from living in the present, but the notion isn’t woven into the text or explored throughout the play. It arrives way too late, with the impact of a Hallmark card. Still, “I Need That” will prove satisfying for those looking to be entertained by DeVito and his daughter. He brings real joy and laughter, and there’s real value in that.

In this revival, what’s left is a beautiful, spacious clarity about what this oft-produced play is about, who these characters are, what they mean to one another and how they may (or may not) impact audiences of today. There is nothing but dialogue pared down by playwright Amy Herzog (the rare woman interpreting “A Doll’s House,” at least on Broadway) and played with great skill by most of the actors in the production.