We are all connected. Nothing is random; things happen for a reason. Be nice to your siblings. These are some ideas one might discern from Joshua Ravetch’s One November Yankee, but to say the play is a reflection on these—or any other—themes would be far too generous to this massive misfire that tells three different stories, with barely a sentence of realistic-sounding dialogue among them.
The only thing that makes One November Yankee tolerable—but only slightly, because the material is that dreadful—is the presence of Harry Hamlin and Stefanie Powers, familiar faces since their 1980s TV stardom (he on L.A. Law; she on Hart to Hart). They both look terrific and seem committed to their ill-conceived roles, though they would be better served by even the silliest farce than Ravetch’s claptrap.
Stefanie Powers and Harry Hamlin as sister and brother No. 2, Margo and Harry Preston.
Powers and Hamlin portray three different pairs of siblings at different places or points in time, connected by common references in their conversations—and by a bright yellow Piper aircraft, crashed, nose-down, in the middle of the stage. Besides the actors, this piece of scenery is the only noteworthy aspect of the show—that, and perhaps Powers’ chic cocktail dress. The set design is by Dana Moran Williams, assisted by Trevor Dotson; the costume design is by Kate Bergh.
One November Yankee’s pretentious, straining-to-be-glib banter begins immediately. “I need a stiff martini with a trio of swollen olives” is one of Powers’s first lines. “Weren’t you sourcing a bottle of Evian?” she says by way of asking for water. Then she describes a diverted LaGuardia-bound flight: “Flushing goes down, so we’re vectored to Vermont.” And that’s all in the first five minutes. There are 80 more minutes of tortured turns of phrase in service of an inane plot.
A sampling of plot points that don’t make sense: “One of the top three modern artists in the world” has never been seen by the New York art world. Those same New York art cognoscenti are still reckoning with the use of everyday objects in art installations. A museum curator is fodder for Page Six. “I live paycheck to paycheck,” whines a character who flies first-class and wears jewelry from Cartier and Tiffany. A middle-aged librarian flies herself to a family wedding in Florida instead of taking an airline flight—although nothing is ever said about when, why or how she became a pilot and airplane owner. And she forgets to put gas in the plane before the flight. An airplane that crashed is found by random hikers years later, intact with all the passengers’ belongings nearby, but it was never spotted by rescue operations.
Hamlin as Ralph, an artist debuting his “Crumpled Plane” installation. Photographs by Matt Urban/NüPoint Marketing.
Yes, airplanes figure prominently in the script. All the better for mentioning—pointlessly and rather cavalierly—9/11, Sully’s “Miracle on the Hudson,” John F. Kennedy Jr., Malaysian Airlines, the Concorde, the Wright brothers. Al Hirschfeld, Rachel Maddow, Stephen Hawking and Marcel Duchamp, among others, are name-dropped too. And the play tells—never shows—everything that’s revealed about the characters. All their personality traits, demographics and motivations are blurted out, not conveyed through any type of dramatic storytelling or character development.
This production of One November Yankee, which is directed by the playwright, comes directly from a November run at the Delaware Theatre Company in Wilmington. The play premiered in Los Angeles in 2012, starring Hamlin and Loretta Swit. Ravetch has also helped create stage vehicles for such stars as Carrie Fisher, Dick Van Dyke, Tyne Daly and Brooke Shields.
It shouldn’t take Hollywood celebrities to make a drama palatable for the audience, however. Ravetch has crammed in enough potentially affecting scenarios: youthful resentments that lead to adult misunderstandings, unresolved feelings over the death of an adored sibling, parents’ secrets about their marriage, middle-aged disappointment at how your life has turned out. Why, there’s even “Civilization in ruins!” as Hamlin’s Ralph didactically explains in a way no artist ever does about his artwork’s meaning. Like all the characters’ feelings and backstories in One November Yankee, this is just verbalized, emphatically, but with no relation to a storyline of any substance or authenticity.
One November Yankee is at 59E59 Theaters (between Park and Madison Avenues) through Dec. 29. Evening performances are at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; matinees are at 2:15 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available by calling (646) 892-7999 or by visiting 59e59.org.
