'Commons' at Northlight doesn't live up to scandal that inspired it

“The Commons of Pensacola” may be well-intentioned, but it falls short of heightened expectations.

This 2013 off-Broadway play penned by actress Amanda Peet comes off as too slight to tackle its weighty subject matter. And that's despite a solid cast attached to its Chicago-area debut at Northlight Theatre in Skokie.

The drama is clearly inspired by the massive financial scandal involving Wall Street banker Bernard L. Madoff, who was convicted in 2009 for running what The New York Times called “the largest, longest and most widespread Ponzi scheme in history.” But rather than focusing on the downfall of a criminal banker, “The Commons of Pensacola” explores how family members cope in the aftermath with their guilt-by-association shame and their drastically diminished standards of living.

“The Commons of Pensacola” is also burdened with a certain amount of distracting celebrity buzz — not only for its famous author, but with the knowledge of the stars who originated the play's leading roles last year: Blythe Danner as the disgraced banker's wife, Judith, and Sarah Jessica Parker as her down-on-her-luck daughter, Becca.

At Northlight, these roles are impeccably cast with Linda Kimbrough as the disgraced society matron reduced to clipping coupons and hiding out in a cookie-cutter condominium in Pensacola, Florida; and Luisa Strus as the out-of-work actress daughter who comes to visit for Thanksgiving with her much-younger freelance journalist boyfriend, Gabe (Erik Hellman).

Vocally and physically, Kimbrough and Strus appear to have been cut from the same family cloth, making their casting even more convincing. They also tear into their mother-daughter scenes near the end of the play with plenty of defensive and recriminating gusto.

The rest of the ensemble is also strong. The cast includes Lori Myers as the high-strung estranged daughter, Ali; Leah Karpel as her free-spirited college-age daughter, Lizzy (visiting without Ali's permission); and Lily Mojekwu as the Caribbean caretaker Lorena.

But even with this fine cast and a spot-on design team at the disposal of first-time Northlight director Robin Witt, the production cannot fully surmount Peet's poorly constructed plot mechanics and the play's unfulfilled dramatic stakes.

For instance, an approaching hurricane looms at the top of the play, but the characters don't behave as if they're worried about its landfall. Two characters even venture out of the condo to go partying in the middle of the storm — conveniently (plotwise, at least) leaving their phones behind so they can't be contacted just so two other characters can be left on their own for an inevitable confrontation.

A plot point where hidden assets are revealed also doesn't receive a fully satisfying solution, nor does the drama's conclusion.

Peet's desire to explore how relations of a disgraced public figure cope in the unforgiving glare of the media spotlight is both noble and promising in “The Commons of Pensacola.” But despite the best efforts of Northlight's fine cast and top-notch technical crew, they can't conceal how this fictionalized account fails to live up to the potential of the far stranger truths that inspired it.