On & Off Broadway

‘Misery’

Reviewed by Elyse Trevers

Posted

I remember when I first saw the film Misery, based upon the book by Stephen King; I didn’t sleep for a week. It was that terrifying! The book has recently been adapted to the stage. Starring Bruce Willis as author Paul Sheldon, and the always marvelous Laurie Metcalf as the psychopath Annie Wilkes, the play is tepid at best. When the tension does start to build, the audience laughs — often inappropriately. Misery was not intended as a spoof or parody of King's work, so why the laughter?

Sheldon, the author of a series of 19th century romance novels featuring heroine Misery Chastain, is involved in a horrific accident but is rescued by Wilkes, a former nurse. The snow has made the roads impassable, and the telephone wires are down, so he is stuck in Wilkes' home. When she reads his final novel and learns that her beloved character dies in childbirth, effectively ending the book series, she goes on a rampage and demands that he write Misery's Return. Wilkes keeps Sheldon prisoner, carefully meting out his pain medicine and keeping his whereabouts secret.

Those who know Metcalf only as the ditzy sister on TV's Rosanne will marvel at her fine acting. She brings the perfect combination of dottiness, sweetness and fiendishness to the role. She's frightening because one moment she's rational and sane and then becomes violent. It's frightening that the same woman who chastises Sheldon for the profanity he uses in his memoir doesn't hesitate to slam his broken legs with a book to 'punish" him. Throughout it all, Metcalf carries it off with finesse, portraying a study in contradictions.


At first the laughter in the play comes from the dramatic irony of Wilkes announcing she is Sheldon’s "number one fan." When she praises his work and calls him a genius, we want to warn him that she is a psychopath. Some of the audience laughter is a nervous, knowing laughter. It's the later inappropriate laughter that detracts from the play, but it isn't the audience's fault. Willis doesn't have the acting 'chops' to convey the fear the plays needs. He's not afraid enough, so neither are we. At one point, when Annie shoots the policeman who would have rescued Sheldon, Willis watches from his bed as the policemen falls dead to the floor. His expression is one of bemusement or surprise rather than horror. So the audience laughed! Willis must rely on facial expressions and intonation, neither of which works well in this play. He's not a convincing enough actor and even if he is a box office draw, he doesn't add much to the drama of the play.

At the end, we should have left the theater shaken; after all we'd just narrowly escaped the clutches of a madwoman. Instead, most left the theater smiling. Misery, the movie, was really scary; too bad Misery the show wasn’t.