Review: Rage and resentment as a last resort in the Geffen Playhouse’s ‘Big Sky’

The setting for “Big Sky,” a new comedy by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros that opened Wednesday at the Geffen Playhouse, is a Ritz-Carlton condo in a deluxe vacation community in Aspen, Colo., where the rich frolic on the slopes by day and sit by a chic fire in a private Ralph Lauren-styled lodge by night.

Jack (Jon Tenney), an out-of-work alpha male Wall Street type, is up for a big job at the Pederson Fund. His prospective boss, a guy who “made a killing on the credit default swaps before it was bad manners to say so,” has brought Jack and his family out for a visit while a final offer is still being deliberated.

It becomes immediately apparent that Jack’s marriage is not in the best of shape. His wife, Jen (Jennifer Westfeldt), is more interested in her incoming texts than her husband’s conversation. When he touches her, she recoils as though a stranger were putting the moves on her. Only a fool or a blinkered narcissist could miss that her heart belongs to another.

The condo (designed by Derek McLane with glossy travel brochure allure) is barren, symbolically and literally, of food. Jen is too busy with her phone to run errands, though the Pederson Fund has fortunately sent over a case of ludicrously expensive wine that Jack laps up as though it will restore him to full financial strength.

Tessa (Emily Robinson), the couple’s 17-year-old daughter, is harboring secrets of her own. She confesses to Jonathan (Arnie Burton), Jen’s gay friend who has tagged along on the trip, that she’s sleeping with the Native American porter of her family’s New York building.

Although a stellar student, Tessa isn’t focusing on college admissions. She’s planning a fugitive cross-country road trip with Catoni, whose name means big sky.

Tessa shares this information after catching Jonathan smoking weed and insisting that he share some with her. Jonathan, the wisecracking character everyone confides in, smokes for medicinal reasons: Still bereaved after the death of his lover from cancer, he’s a nervous wreck over whether Jack will invest some more money in his pillow business so he can pull himself out of his economic hole.

Gersten-Vassilaros, who wrote “Omnium Gatherum” with Theresa Rebeck, works in broad comic strokes that at times evoke the crowd-tickling comedies of Neil Simon. The upside is that there are some memorably witty lines. (“Maybe marriage was a better idea when life expectancy was lower,” Jack says to Jonathan after opening up about his wife’s lack of interest in sex.)

But the downside, as is often the case in Simon’s plays, is that the desire for steady laughs keeps the comedy stuck on the surface. Jokes spring from stereotypical attitudes and types. At times, the playwright seems to care more about the affluent milieu than her characters, who have a brittleness to them that makes the play a bit of a slog at times.

Divided into two acts, “Big Sky” is at once breezy and overstretched. The set-up is labored, and the methodical plotting takes some of the spring out of the comedy.

Under the direction of Tony winner John Rando (“Urinetown”), an expert at both classical and modern farce, the play really takes off midway through the second half when the family’s conflicts converge in a delirium of rage, guilt and resentment — when the exposition, in other words, is finally squashed and everyone is going after one another, whitened tooth and manicured nail.

The resolution, it must be said, resorts abruptly to bald symbolism. Tessa, who hit a buffalo while driving under the influence, is urged to perform a “rite of atonement” by Catoni for killing a sacred animal.

But this ritual becomes even more of a necessity for a family that has bought into the consumerism of an American dream that is starting to resemble a nightmare. Gersten-Vassilaros’ prescription is the correct one, but the medicine is somewhat awkwardly administered.

The performers are sharp, lively and boldly unconcerned with likability. Tenney is especially brave in his portrayal of smug, superficial, self-involved Jack, who’s frighteningly hilarious when on a ballistic tirade and yet still affecting when down for the count.

Westfeldt convincingly captures the outlines of a woman who has pulled out of a marriage that has left her feeling empty and lost, though Jen is not quite defined enough to earn our sympathy.

The vagueness of this wife and mother no doubt accounts for some of the bitterness of Robinson’s Tessa, whose natural kindness is at war with her rebellious fury. The psychology adds up, but it can be grating to be in the company of these family members for an extended time.

Burton’s Jonathan, in the role occupied by servants of antique comedy who always know more than anyone else about what’s going in their topsy-turvy households, fires off quips with flamboyant flair. But the compulsive wit turns him more into a theatrical figure than a fully fleshed out character, even when he’s delivering homiletic truths everyone needs to hear.

That’s the problem with “Big Sky” in a nutshell. The play wants to amuse and instruct, but its approach is a little too shallow to do more than intermittently divert.

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‘Big Sky’

Where: Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 17.

Tickets: $43-$82 (subject to change)

Info: (310) 208-5454 or www.geffenplayhouse.org

Running time: 2 hours

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