Despite a Strong Leading Man and Cast, ‘Babbitt’ Falls Flat

metroweekly.com:

Babbitt may find Joe DiPietro’s theatrical adaptation a gratifying box-checker. However, for those who haven’t (recently or ever) read it, director Christopher Ashley’s production is too thin on the ground to resonate.In fact, dramaturg Drew Lichtenberg’s elegantly concise program essay should be seen as a companion — and required pre-curtain reading.

Along with an excellent summary of Lewis’ oeuvre, it does a grand job of shoring up some of what never quite translates from book to stage.

Whatever Lewis may have achieved in his novel (which, in fact, was called a book without a plot), neither adapter nor director have managed to meet the challenge of bringing it wittily and wryly to life.On the plus side, DiPietro’s interpretation certainly raises the interesting, if depressing, fact that the Lewis of 1922 shared the same frustration gripping the nation today: how easily people take a side; how quickly politicians lie and cajole to hold onto power.He also offers, with some clarity, Lewis’ more intriguing observations on a certain type of American (male) skating along in mindless certainty with seemingly nothing ever really at stake.

And although setting the play in a modern library is obtuse (unless you have read the program), the meta-dance between past and present succeeds in suggesting movement in time, but also in values.Despite director Ashley’s skill in bringing a snappy, stylized delivery to the production, there is something about this vehicle that has dulled every edge.