Word: chapterful
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Even the generally weak cast of this production cannot distract from the play's inherent flaws, especially an excessive length. Still, Chapter II is well worth seeing; Simon doesn't often deal so openly with human pain. Just don't go expecting a typical Simon laugh-riot. Instead, you will laugh a little and be more than a little moved. At the Shubert Theater...
ABOUT FIVE MINUTES into Chapter Two the hero breaks into tears. There's nothing extraordinary about such behavior--except that Chapter Two is a play by Neil Simon, from whom we expect snappy one-liners, not sobs. Though Simon's characters usually do struggle with the all-too-familiar daily frustrations that bugs us all, especially if we're upper middle class urban dwellers, Chapter Two's protagonist faces a much more catastrophic upheaval--the death of his beloved spouse...
...Jerry Orbach) still grieves, stolidly refusing efforts of his brother Leo (Herbert Edelman) to fix him up. While researching material for a new book, George accidentally phones one of Leo's prospects, an actress named Jennie (Marilyn Redfield), whose recent divorce leaves her, like George, resigned to the second chapter of her life, and being urged to date, by a friend, Faye (Jane A. Johnston). Intrigued by their mutual reluctance to get involved, Jennie and George meet, discover their minds--work in the same rhythm," and marry, all in the space of a few weeks. Despite the misgivings of their...
...actress Marsha Mason some time after his first wife's death. Out of this painful period in his life. Simon has created a painfully effective portrait of human behavior at its most paradoxical: the man fears feeling happy, the woman's compassion threatens to kill her husband's affection. Chapter Two is a long way from the cute quarrels of the newlyweds in Barefoot in the Park. Simon's first success, based on the early days of his first marriage...
...Happily, Chapter Two is not quite as grim as its plot: characteristic Simon wit surfaces frequently. For instance, when George accuses Leo of fixing him up with a prostitute, his brother indignantly defends the girl, and then asks. "Why, did she charge you?" On the whole, however. Simon avoids his usually relentless parade of quips. Chapter Two possesses none of the slick quality that mars some of his earlier plays, which made his characters sound like professional stand-up comedians, not believable human beings. Instead, the humor approaches the way people actually talk or joke, and even helps to crystallize...