Jason Alexander, John Glover
Slow! Static! Annoying! Terrence McNally wrote this adaptation of his 1994 hit play about eight gay men who share a summer vacation house. He doesn't seem to have adapted enough: The result is like watching a stage production at too close a range. And if you pick at the script's seams, the entire enterprise begins to unravel. How likely is it one would find a pair of identical twins (both played by Glover) where one is a snarling cynic and the other sweetness itself? What is the dramatic purpose of having one character's sister die—far offscreen—in a catastrophe in India? Why is that same character blind, anyway? And so on. Alexander, who charges through TV's Seinfeld with great theatrical gusto, is the most flamboyant of the houseguests, a Broadway-musical devotee likely to turn up on the lawn wearing little more than red pumps. But Alexander underplays here, which makes the role pointless. It's like doing Darth Vader without the helmet. (R)
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