‘Vanya’ and ‘Seagull’ and Mash-Up and Spite Blythe Danner Stars in ‘The Country House’
Ben BrantleyOctober 2, 2014: Blythe Danner’s voice makes its entrance before she does. “Da-ahr-ling!” it cries out from the wings in that familiar italicizing rasp, and a gratified ripple of recognition runs through the audience. The applause begins even before Ms. Danner’s willowy form flutters into view. That “darling” is the first word heard in The Country House, Donald Margulies’s motley valentine to the artists of the stage and the angst of Anton Chekhov, which opened on Thursday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater. And the endearment, especially as Ms. Danner pronounces it, feels like a fitting prologue for a play that considers the Broadway star as a vanishing species. Uttered with the proper authority, “darling” is a weapon, a shield and a good-luck charm for someone like Ms. Danner’s character, Anna Patterson, the kind of glamour-kissed actress whose name on a marquee would once have guaranteed lines around the block. Not these days, though. As Anna says, through clenched teeth: “There are no Broadway stars, dear. Not anymore. Oh, there are stars on Broadway, but they’re not Broadway stars.”
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