Just as nutty as ever, Jeff Goldblum loses it in The Prisoner of Second Avenue at Vaudeville Theatre.
Anyone who grew up in the '90s may or may not be thankful that Jeff Goldblum has given us yet another reason to reference Friends. Remember the one where he played a slightly neurotic stage-play director who unwittingly had Joey fill his bladder to bursting before each audition? His character Mel Edison in The Prisoner of Second Avenue, currently playing at Vaudeville Theatre, is bestowed with much the same slow burning neurosis. Judging by the trailer and every other media appearance the man’s made, he’s playing an amped up version of himself which is a bit of a waste of a West End performance.
Having said that, there are some great one-liners in this Neil Simon play and Goldblum knowingly delivers each one to his audience’s delight. Originally billed as a black comedy in the 1971 Broadway run, Terry Johnson’s 2010 West End version is just a comedy and not a great one. The play isn’t as dark as it is slow and it’s not as funny to a British audience as it might be to an American one.
The Prisoner of Second Avenue follows 47-year-old Mel and his wife Edna after Mel loses his job as an ad exec and spends his days alone in their apartment while Edna goes out to work. The couple have to contend with noisy neighbours, faulty air-con, poor garbage disposal, dodgy water pipes, and a few instances of slapstick comedy that segue nicely into bouts of rage and frustration we can all relate to. The difference is that middle aged Brits rarely work up the gumption to yell at neighbours they’ll inevitably have to see again, so Mel Edison remains a world away, despite having as much potential to resonate in these uncertain times as is eerily possible.
His company having rendered him useless and the job market being what it is, it’s up to Mercedes Ruehl as Edna Edison to rescue all that she can, including this play. With her husband sunk in a funk, she manages to hold him together until the couple are burgled in broad daylight, and Simon’s script does well to get to grips with Edna’s reasons for putting up with Mel’s mercurial temperament. Ruehls presence, her superb delivery and the excellent on-stage pairing reveals an endearing love between the two. Their dialogue is superbly real and Edna’s take on her husband’s emotional instability gives the play substance where it lacks intensity.
Mel’s nervous breakdown doesn’t have the effect on the audience it’s supposed to. When his brother and sisters arrive to help in their own comic, emotionally stunted way, their stationary presence on stage makes the play lag. This, coupled with Mel’s speedy return to normality makes the middle dull and the end rushed despite a brilliantly snappy beginning. Watching a man’s decent into casual madness is supposed to be a little disturbing as well as funny but this production is a lot like every couple-based American sitcom out there. Think King of Queens and Married with Children, think Kramer in Seinfeld and you’re almost there.
The Prisoner of Second Avenue runs at Vaudeville Theatre until 11th September.
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