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An
upturned flashlight in hand, her large eyes
blinking furiously, she peers into the stage
darkness like a newborn koala – and with
that entrance, Marcy Harriell proceeds to
channel the comedic charms of both the ditsy
Judy Holliday and the daffy Carole Lombard.
Playing Jan, the lonelyhearts zooworker with
an inner vixen, Harriell imbues her
character with the kind of zany intelligence
once associated with the roles of Gildna
Radner, even as there’s also a dollop of the
ingenuous confusion displayed by Marilyn
Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire. All of
these remarkable comedic talents come
together in Harriell’s stellar performance
which provides the climax to the three-part,
eight-character, three-actor play Getting
Home now playing at the 2econd Stage Uptown.
At a time when the headlines are so often
about death and destruction, Anton Dudley’s
Getting Home, a ninety-minute rumination
about love and relationships in present-day
New York provides an anodyne for the soul,
reminding us that connection is life’s goal.
With the two male leads, Brian Henderson and
Manu Narayan. each playing three characters,
there’s an element of Arthur Schnitzler’s
Reigen as the daisy chain works its way from
flower to flower – until ultimately the
eight urban denizens are entwined. And while
nearly all of the characters are given ample
opportunity to come forward and break
through the fourth wall, it’s Jan, as
inhabited by Harriell, who in speaking about
the spell woven by the magic of love and the
hope that lies therein, lingers longest
after the lights have come up.
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