A couple in crisis remembers happier times in US (photo by Russ Rowland)
The Lion Theater at Theatre Row
410 West 4nd St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through September 29, $40
www.ustheplay.com
Actress and activist Michelle Clunie makes an inauspicious debut as a playwright in the political romantic comedy Us, which turns out to be a whole lot less fun than either the Republican or Democratic Convention, although it sometimes seems nearly as long. The title represents both the couple in the story and the country in the midst of the 2008 presidential campaign, with Clunie starring as an actress and activist who has just discovered that her boyfriend (Jeff LeBeau), who is about to accept his party’s nomination for senator, has been cheating on her. Right from the start, it is hard to feel any sympathy for either character, something the play never recovers from as it bounces back and forth between the present and the past, revealing how the two, who affectionately (and sickeningly) call each other Booboo, met and fell in love. Director Jennifer Gelfer (the internet series In Between Men) and Clunie, who played Melanie Marcus on Queer as Folk, make full use of the space, as Clunie’s character enters from behind the audience, walks on a platform above the rear of the stage, and threatens to leave through the main doors, but it comes off as art for art’s sake, desperate, inorganic attempts to create something, anything interesting and original. The best part of the show are the short black-and-white videos by Jendra Jarnagin that depict the couple in happier times as they explore a burgeoning love that is devoid of passion once the play returns to the characters onstage. Clunie spends too much time spouting her political views, using far-too-obvious pop music to further her points, and making too many self-referential comments about the writing of the play, resulting in a flat, uninspiring drama that offers nothing new to either the political discourse or the magic that is live theater.