Marvin's Room

This is a strikingly appropriate time for a revival of Scott McPherson's play "Marvin's Room," which played Off-Broadway in 1991 and is now having its first run on Broadway thanks to the Roundabout Theatre Company. As a new healthcare bill is being worked on in the Senate and we see reports of citizens sitting in at their representatives' offices to oppose an attack on Medicaid, this play portrays everyday Americans for whom chronic illness hangs over their family like a permanent cloud.

Although half the characters in McPherson's dramedy suffer from one protracted ailment or another, from the very first scene -- where a character has to get blood drawn by a hapless doctor -- it is clear that the author truly sees the humor in sickness. Marvin (Carman Lacivita), of the title, is the family patriarch who had a stroke many years ago and has been "dying" ever since. Aunt Ruth (a delightful Celia Weston) recently got the "cure" to a long-term back problem, which involves administering shocks to herself via a remote control (that also tends to open the garage accidentally).

When Marvin's daughter and caretaker Bessie (Lili Taylor) appears to have her own oncoming illness (leukemia, which killed her mother) to deal with, she has to resurrect her relationship with her estranged sister Lee (Janeane Garofalo). Lee brings her bright young boy, Charlie (Luca Padovan), and her troubled teenage son, Hank (Jack DiFalco), who has been residing in a mental institution, from Ohio down to Florida so they can get tested as possible bone marrow matches. But surly Hank may not be willing to get the test at all, and his tense relationship with his mother isn't helping matters.

Some of the humor in "Marvin's Room" is overly broad, but even when the characters seem a little much, there is a kernel of reality in them. In fact, one of the pleasures of the play is that it is about regular folks dealing with real-life struggles -- but without any of the self-consciousness that says "Look, we're salt-of-the-earth people putting on a brave face when times are tough!"

The play doesn't delve into politics at all and focuses solely on the family dynamic, yet you can almost imagine these characters talking to a reporter outside of Senator Rubio or Senator Portman's office about why they desperately need affordable health insurance.

You couldn't have asked for a more perfectly cast pair of sisters than Taylor and Garofalo. Taylor is lovely in her role, anchoring the play with a sweet, understated performance. As the fundamentally decent but more self-involved Lee, Garofalo at times struggles to elicit the laughs clearly intended by the author, not because of a lack of comedic skill on her part but perhaps because the audience has a hard time laughing at what appears to be a neglectful mother. (This is increasingly a problem with some revivals, as today's audiences are less likely to laugh at light-hearted portrayals of abuse of any kind. Whether this demonstrates that we have evolved as humans, or is just "PC-ism run amok," I'll leave to the pundits.) However, her character gains more dimension, and sympathy, as the play progresses.

Overall, this is a great cast taking on a "pretty good" play. "Marvin's Room" is not a classic, but it is an often touching and funny drama that explores the bonds of family and honors the caretakers who sacrifice part of themselves to serve the ones they love.

"Marvin's Room" runs through August 27 at the American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd Street in New York City. For information or tickets, call 212-719-1300 or visit www.roundabouttheatre.org.