Tidy ‘Moon For Misbegotten’ Packs Punch At Playhouse On Park

They don’t write plays like “A Moon for the Misbegotten” anymore. It’s a two-and-a-half hour, essentially three-character, four-act drama in which most of the third act consists of a drunken man resting his head in a woman’s lap and rambling on about what a rotten person he’s become.

The character, a debauched gentleman named James Tyrone Jr., is really not that bad — there are worse people in the play — but he is beset by demons. His inner pain is so visceral, so well articulated, that physical movement is not required. His immobile meditations are riveting.

Eugene O’Neill was a master of such meditative emotional outbursts. He tended to have such conflicted, guilt-ridden characters unburden themselves to bartenders or hotel clerks or family members. The beauty of “A Moon for the Misbegotten” is that the woman to whom its anti-hero is pouring his heart out is a simple farm girl in her late 20s named Josie. She and James, who happens to be her landlord, have engaged in a mild flirtation over the years. Josie’s rascally father Phil Hogan has fallen behind in the rent and also fears that James Tyrone Jr. may sell the property to a wealthy neighbor. Phil schemes to have Josie seduce James.

O’Neill set “A Moon for the Misbegotten” in a town he’d grown up in — New London. James Tyrone Jr. is someone whom he had created for a different play, “A Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” The two works seem loosely connected, but were not seen that way when they were first made public.

The script of “A Moon for the Misbegotten” was published in 1943, 13 years before “Long Day’s Journey,” which the playwright insisted not be released until after his death. When “Long Day’s Journey” was staged in 1956, “A Moon for the Misbegotten” still hadn’t received a New York production. That wouldn’t come until 1957.

“Long Day’s Journey” won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. “Moon for the Misbegotten” would remain largely misunderstood and unpopular until Jose Quintero directed a major Broadway revival in 1973.

The playwright based James Tyrone Jr. (also known as Jamie or Jim) on his own brother, Jamie O’Neill, a poorly motivated actor and heavy drinker. It’s convenient that O’Neill was an alcoholic himself. He perfectly captures the cadences of besotted after-hours ramblings.

Playhouse on Park has assembled an attractive cast for a play in which attractiveness isn’t really a plus. Elise Hudson falls far short of O’Neill’s description of Josie: “She is so oversize for a woman that she is almost a freak — five feet eleven in her stockings and weighs around 180.” To be fair, very few productions of the play have ever nailed that description; famous Josies have included Kate Nelligan, Frances McDormand, Audra McDonald and Cherry Jones. But a prettier Josie can be a liability, especially in that meant-to-be-awkward seduction scene.

Likewise, Anthony Marble does not have the baggy eyes, puffy face or “soft and soggy” physique that O’Neill specifies. He doesn’t have the features, or the manners, of a hardened drinker. He’s handsome and well-spoken.

Conan McCarty’s Phil Hogan is muscular, confident and energetic. He hardly seems desperate or anxious enough to set the romantic trap that fuels the plot.

This is not egregious miscasting, but the result is a production that seems cleaner and sweeter than it ought to be. Emily Nichols’ set design and Christopher Bell’s lighting seem too crisp and bright for such a dark, moody, moonlit discourse. Director Joseph Discher doesn’t go into Greek or Shakespearean territory, where many directors are led given the grandness of O’Neill’s speeches. At Playhouse on Park, the actors don’t deliver these words with interior-monologue intensity. Instead, they make them as conversational and interactive as possible. It comes off more melodramatic than tragic, more withdrawn than expansive, more stagy than poetic. A whole level of expression seems to be lost.

Still, it’s a testament to O’Neill’s writing that such a tame, tidy production of “A Moon for the Misbegotten” still packs a punch. The hours fly by as these compelling characters share their innermost dreams and fears.

What we really need is more O’Neill plays being staged in Connecticut, so we can play the light against the dark and the nice against the nasty. His scripts inspire no end of experiments and interpretations and are seldom misbegotten.

A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN continues at Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford, through March 15. Tickets are $30 to $40, $25-$35 for students, seniors and Let’s Go Arts members. 860-523-5900, playhouseonpark.org.