MUSIC FROM A LOCKED ROOM
Set–as you might’ve guessed–in a wealthy English couple’s in-town flat, and unfolding–as you might’ve known–during the course of a small black-tie dinner party, Music From a Locked Room signals its imitative intentions right from the top of the first act, as a blandly servile butler ushers the cheerfully dissolute Blaire Ford-Whyte into the drawing room, where he’s greeted by the charming-but-vague Clinton Champion. Blaire and Clinton noodle a little Gershwin on the piano, exchange some banter about “breeding,” and generally comport themselves like refugees from some lost but sneakingly familiar Noel Coward comedy.
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Zacek’s simplistic–one might say parodistic–reading of Logan’s characters seems especially disappointing when you consider the talent he’s hanging it on. Linda Emond–an exquisite actress on whom I have a deep (though wholly professional) crush–is reduced to weird Cheryl Tiegs moves here, suggesting Amelia’s free spirit by tossing her head back and forth. The gifted Denis O’Hare is encouraged to emote himself out of a well-constructed believability as Blaire; so is Patrick Clear, as Clinton. And though Deanna Dunagan imparts great dignity to the potentially abject Dolores, the character might’ve been a whole lot more interesting if Dunagan had been coached toward making her just a little less noble.
