Review: Theresa Rebeck’s ‘Dead Accounts’ with Katie Holmes isn’t DOA but it lacks sharpness
6 / 10
[Holmes] mostly tries hard to keep up with stage veterans Norbert Leo Butz and Jayne Houdyshell in Rebeck's oddly thin new play...Director Jack O'Brien struggles to both get the five-person cast to really jibe and the rhythm of the plot to get going. Holmes relies too much on a whiny teenage angst and a guilelessness that worked on TV but lacks nuance onstage...Rebeck, who created the first season of NBC's 'Smash' and several well-received plays including 'Seminar' and 'Mauritius,' has stumbled a bit with 'Dead Accounts,' a love letter to the hardworking, plainspoken Midwest, but one that lacks the sharpness and depth of her previous work...The heavy lifting is done by Butz...Butz at first seems to be overcompensating for the smallness of Holmes, but the anguish and heart of his character are revealed beautifully...But 'Dead Accounts' doesn't really resolve anything or really end. It just sort of peters out, its momentum lost and none of its issues resolved.
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