A dull 'Heidi Chronicles' at Bus Barn in Los Altos A dull 'Heidi Chronicles' at Bus Barn in Los Altos (April 03, 2002)

By Bryan Wiggin

Almanac Theater Critic

'The Heidi Chronicles," by Wendy Wasserstein, has always impressed me as one of the most overrated plays of recent times, and the current production at Bus Barn Stage Company in Los Altos does nothing to diminish that impression. This play may have won a Pulitzer and some other prizes, but I find it tedious, sentimental, and far to self-admiring.

In a sequence of short scenes, the play follows Heidi Holland from a prep school dance in 1965 through the idealistic Sixties, the selfish Seventies, and the even more selfish Eighties. As an art historian seeking greater recognition and museum space for women artists, she and her stylish, East Coast, upper-middle-class friends are right on the edge of every new trend. They all feel entitled to the best life has to offer, and that usually takes the form of wearing the smartest brand of clothes and getting their kids into the chicest fast-track schools. (It sounds like our area, doesn't it?)

Heidi's friends through all these years include Scoop Rosenbaum, an overweeningly confident journalist who becomes her first lover. Dan Douthit is rather stiff in this role, too often standing with his hands at his sides, as though waiting to be photographed.

Far livelier is Joe Barra as Peter Patrone, a flamboyant, theatrical type who turns out to be homosexual. He becomes a high-powered pediatrician, which is admirable, but it's an indication of the flatness of the script, and this production, that when he talks about friends who are dying of AIDS, we don't care.

The other lively performance comes from Alicia Davidovich, who takes several parts and is especially good as the militant feminist Fran, wearing combat fatigues, and as a New York TV talk show host, where her smarmy enthusiasm has just the right degree of hyperbole.

As Heidi's friend Susan, Danielle Levin, with ravishing cheekbones, has girlish giddiness in that opening prom scene, and is especially good as a television producer relishing her success and blowing kisses to simply everyone when she and Heidi meet at a trendy New York restaurant

The rest of the performances are somewhat lackluster. They can't be faulted for any specific failing, but they just don't have enough life in them, though Sarah Greene and Shannon Stowe, each taking several parts, have their good moments. Matt Goff seems barely present in his various small roles.

As Heidi, Nancy Sauder has an earnestness that reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore, and even a similarity of voice, but she doesn't have enough of it, and her performance just doesn't have enough intensity, enough life in it.

Director Linda Piccone has everything in place, but there's no spark in the production. Of course, in live theater, performances vary, but the one I saw was tedious, and I noticed that I wasn't the only one glancing at my watch.

There are good costumes from Sam Keng, evoking the various times of the various scenes.

Ms. Wasserstein's play, by relying on our memories of the period she chronicles, and quickening those memories with popular songs, borrows our feelings rather than giving us new ones. It's a cheap device, and the play is a bore.

"The Heidi Chronicles," by Wendy Wasserstein, is being presented at the Bus Barn Stage Company in Los Altos through April 20. For information, call 941-0551.