'Weekend' well acted but doesn't resonate

Like those songs that get recorded but never make it onto the CD, some plays languish in relative obscurity, rarely making their way onto the stage.

Gore Vidal's infrequently produced "Weekend" is one of those plays.

Vidal's 1968 political comedy about opportunism and self-interest sputtered upon its Broadway premiere and closed after 21 performances. Forty years later, this mostly lukewarm examination of race, class and power in American politics makes its Chicago premiere at TimeLine Theatre under former American Theater Company artistic director Damon Kiely. Despite Kiely's able direction and a top-notch cast that includes the always watchable Janet Ulrich Brooks, whose comic turn as a bigoted Washington, D.C., maven generates some of the production's biggest laughs, "Weekend" remains essentially a B-side to Vidal's superior 1960 hit "The Best Man."

Peppered with references to 1960s power players (Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon among them), "Weekend" reflects an insider's knowledge of the Beltway. But unlike his incisive, more unrelentingly cynical "Best Man," Vidal's follow-up is less discriminating, attacking in a scattershot manner such familiar targets as bigots, the Vietnam War and conservatives.

That's not to say Vidal's wickedly perceptive observations don't have bite. They do, especially those directed at an American electorate dominated by "don't knows" (a still relevant indictment of the uninformed and uncommitted) and at woolly politicians whose mediocrity increases their popularity - popularity they sustain by carefully avoiding taking a definitive stand, except when it comes to rooting out communism, whose universal disapproval reflects the Cold War era in which the play takes place.

Set in 1968, right after Lyndon Johnson declared he would not seek a second term as president, the play unfolds in the nicely appointed living room in the tony Washington, D.C., home of Sen. Charles MacGruder (a practiced, nicely restrained performance by the versatile Terry Hamilton). A moderate Republican with presidential aspirations, Charles wants to end the war in Vietnam - a sentiment shared by his dutiful, dovish wife Estelle (Penny Slusher in an effortlessly comic performance) - and plans to center his campaign around the issue.

While it has left the Democrats scrambling, Johnson's decision not to run has energized the Republicans who recognize it as their opportunity to reclaim the White House. No one understands that better than Charles, who solicits support from conservative southern Sen. Andy Andrews (a razor-sharp Tom McElroy), whose endorsement he needs to win the nomination, which pollster Norris Blotner (Ian Paul Custer) and personal secretary Miss Wilson (Juliet Hart) assure him is within his reach. Problems arise when Charles' scheming, self-righteous son Beany (Joe Sherman, deliciously smug in the way only a rich kid living off his folks can be) returns from England with a "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" surprise in the person of his fiance Louise (Mica Cole).

While Vidal ably conveys the tenor of the times (whose mood and issues aren't that far removed from our own), the characters aren't especially involving and the satire rings hollow. The play feels empty. It exists more as a self-conscious exercise of wit and attack on ideological opponents than as an example of truly great political satire.

"Weekend"

Location: TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago

Times: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 12

Running time: About 2 hours, 10 minutes

Tickets: $25, $35

Parking: Metered parking, some paid lots

Box office: (773) 281-8463 or timelinetheatre.com

Rating: For adults

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=1&type=video&item=195">Clip from TimeLine Theatre's "Weekend" </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>