‘Graceland’ is a not so grave comedy

‘Two and a Half Men' regular Marin Hinkle leads LCT3's airy production

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

A somewhat wacky comedy, "Graceland" refers not to Elvis Presley's Memphis estate but to an historic cemetery in Chicago. Intermittently there, a brother and a sister ponder the significantly younger-older sexual attractions that are messing up their 30-something lives.

Opening on Monday at The Duke on 42nd Street, "Graceland" is the latest production from LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater's off-Broadway project offering fully-staged new works by new writers for a $20 ticket.

So for twenty bucks you can't go wrong unless the show is a total bust, which is pretty unlikely from the well-connected LCT3 gang. Not to say that "Graceland" is the greatest play you'll ever see, but at least it's a well-written 90-minute diversion performed by a first-class company with effective visuals.

A shaken Sara (Marin Hinkle) joins her brother Sam (Matt McGrath) in Chicago to bury their father, who killed himself. Over the next day or three, Sara enjoys a drunken tryst with nice middle-aged swinger Joe (Brian Kerwin) but then becomes involved-sort of — with Joe's appealing teen son Miles (David Gelles Hurwitz), who happens to work on the grounds crew at Graceland.

Meanwhile it's revealed how woeful Sam's life crashed after he learned that his girlfriend Anna (Polly Lee) hooked up with his dad.

A missing timepiece — an obvious yet meaningful symbol in a story about age — keeps the characters colliding with some droll results. If the siblings' eventual self-discoveries are scarcely earthshaking, at least the characters wise up more to the impulses that affect them so.

Making her New York debut, Chicago author Ellen Fairey writes with a quick and playful hand. Her airy style is underscored by director Henry Wishcamper's agile production of the comedy at the 199-seat Duke, where designer Robin Vest's setting neatly melds projections of Graceland's vistas with the living room of Joe's high-rise apartment (complete with leather couches and Nina Simone records).

Moonlighting from her "Two and a Half Men" TV chores, a baleful-looking Hinkle makes a perfectly rueful Sarah while the rest of the company performs their roles adeptly. You probably won't recall much about "Graceland" a day or two afterwards, but the show certainly passes the time pleasantly enough.

"Graceland" continues through May 29 at The Duke, 229 W. 42nd St., New York. Call (646) 223-3010 or visit www.lct3.org.