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This blog is a good place to file a minority report, i.e. a mini-review that disagrees with the one already published in the real newspaper. Still, time flies, and I’ve only done it once or twice. And now I want to write a bit about a play where I generally agree with what’s been published. Bob Hoover’s review of Eric Burns’ “Mid-Strut” is a fine job. But I want to have a say, anyway.

Certainly the subject matter – love and marriage and mortality, all seen at mid-age – is one of great interest to those of us of mid-age or more. We know something about these things. And much that Burns writes has the tang of wit and truth. He’s definitely a writer.

I also like the course that the story takes. It’s not predictable but it’s not too far-fetched, and the ambiguity at the end gives you something to debate, if you’re lucky enough to have someone to debate with, which “Mid-Strut” suggests you probably should. I admit I don’t understand Burns’ thing about majorettes, but I had the misfortune of going to an all-male prep school, so they were just a distant dream.

I enjoyed myself. And yet I missed something. Like Bob, I think the short-fall is in characterization, especially in the magical interloper, Jack Allison. I don’t believe him.  For me, he’d work better if he were either more grounded in specifics or more frankly magical, like Cary Grant in “The Bishop’s Wife.”

Which brings me to casting. I especially like John Shepard’s Jack McGruder and Maggie Carr’s Sarah, his daughter – whatever specifics the characters lack, the actors supply dimension. Wendy, the central character, is a tougher challenge, since she’s the one we’re supposed to care about. Cary Anne Spear works valiantly to fill her in.

Then there’s Bob Turano (once Bob Koch, back when he was a young Pittsburgher, opening our eyes to Mamet), an actor I’ve always enjoyed. He’s deadpan and sardonic, capable of ironic comedy or dark anger. But the saintly Jack Allison is a stretch, especially since he’s written just as a man with a mission, not with the personality and background that make that mission plausible.

And although I’m always glad to see Phil Winters on stage, I don’t see the need of his character, the doctor.

Well, you don’t go to a theater critic to get a play fixed, just to hear what one member of the audience made of it. As I say, I had a good time, even though it felt contrived.

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