"Marrying" a very long engagement

"Marrying Terry" is playwright Greg Opelka's first non-musical play. Unfortunately, the inexperience shows through in the Nightingale Group's sluggish Chicago premiere at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater.

Opelka has loads of experience writing musicals like "La Vie Ennui" and new English lyrics for lengthy operettas-which might explain why "Marrying Terry" clocked two hours and 35 minutes at the final preview performance.

"Marrying Terry" is set largely at Chicago's plush Drake Hotel on New Year's Eve during a massive snowstorm. There, attractive librarian (Ana Sferruzza) and an uptight radiologist (Dan Rodden) get thrown together in the hotel's presidential suite due a series of extraordinary coincidences and mix-ups-all aided by the fact they share the same unisex name of "Terry Adams."

Along with the excessive length, "Marrying Terry" is hampered by a script full of half-hearted farcical set-ups that don't pay off and clichȩ life-changing declarations that come off as phony.

There's also some illogical character motivations that are in place because they would thwart Opelka's romantic plotting. For example, Terry and best friend Janet (Debbie Laumand-Blanc) go shopping inside the hotel while wearing their winter coats instead of sensibly dropping them off in Terry's room. Also, when librarian Terry discovers a strange drunk man sleeping in her bed, she doesn't immediately call hotel security as most people would do, but instead makes a calm attempt to wake him up and engage in conversation.

The largely professional cast gives solid performances, particularly Mary Mulligan as Penny, the pushy fiance to radiologist Terry and Paul Perroni as librarian Terry's aggressive and brutish boyfriend, Paul. Unfortunately, the whole cast is clearly hampered by the script. Director Suzanne Avery-Thompson's glacial pacing for the scenes doesn't help, nor do the lengthy scene changes to Kevin Doler's ambitious but sometimes tatty-looking set.

Just like a pleasant champagne that goes flat when it's left out too long, Opelka's "Marrying Terry" wears out its reception as a frothy romantic comedy. At present, "Marrying Terry" needs loads of cutting and condensing to go down satisfactorily.

"Marrying Terry"

1 1/2 stars out of four

Location: Nightingale Group at Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago

Times: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays; 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays; through Jan. 27.

Running time: 2 hours and 35 minutes with intermission

Parking: Area garages and metered parking

Tickets: $30; $24 students/seniors

Box office: (773) 871-3000

Rating: mild innuendo about cheating