It’s one of the more curious trends of the day that musicals, which
were once brash and vulgar, and full of slick presentational
choreography, are now austere stately bores like Titanic; on the other
hand, straight plays, in contrast to the restraint of their lyric
neighbors, are frequently brash, vulgar and full of slick
presentational choreography. Whether this inversion is in the
interest of either form is debatable. Take, for example, More
Stately Mansions, “by Eugene O’Neill”—though the production is
enough to make you wonder. At the New York Theatre Workshop, Ivo
van Hove’s staging of this triangular tale of mother, son, and wife
begins each act with the three principals solemnly entering and
forming themselves into … a triangle. The numbing vaudevillian
obviousness of the gesture is enough to make you groan. Yes,
O’Neill’s play is about a triangle, but that doesn’t narrow it down
much more than saying
it’s about people, people who need people.
There is certainly an argument to be made for non-naturalistic,
stylized storytelling— especially with O’Neill—and, if you take
that route, then you’re as well to declare your dramatic vocabulary
early on. To his credit, unlike many contemporary directors of
plays and musicals, van Hove maintains a consistent staging language
throughout the evening. But that doesn’t mitigate against his glib
and generic opening: it’s the equivalent of a chorines’ kickline; it
says no more than, “Here we go again.”

More Stately Mansionsbelongs to a projected cycle of plays