Marvin's Room is merely serious when you wish it would be moving
7 / 10
With the whole of theater history on the shelf, what makes a producer reach for a particular show to re-stage? Beyond a don't-miss pairing of a classic role and a magnetic star (see: Hello, Dolly and Bette Midler), it helps for a revival to resonate - topically, emotionally - with present-day audiences. That's a harder task for a returning show in which the story is contemporaneous with its original premiere (Dolly, for instance, never ages because, even in 1964, it swept audiences to the turn of the century). Unfortunately, this first Broadway production of Marvin's Room never quite justifies its trip back to the early '90s. While not a conspicuous period piece, it resists updating, and yet lacks the emotional power and resonance to move us from its long-ago vantage.
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