Review Preview: The Miracle Worker

OK, here's a technically timely Review Preview of "The Miracle Worker" at Paper Mill. Only technically, cause I saw the show two weeks ago. But the review does not publish until Friday, so it's fresh as a daisy.

No play last week and none this week, but following is another busy stretch, I think seven plays in six weeks.

Oy.

FYI congrats to all the new management types at Paper Mill, recently announced. We're all hoping things turn around.

If you want to go:
What: “The Miracle Worker”
When: through Feb. 24
Where: Paper Mill Playhouse, Brookside Drive, Millburn
How much: $25-92
Info: (973) 376-4343; www.papermill.org

By WILLIAM WESTHOVEN
Staff Writer
The New York Giants recently completed a miracle season in the Meadowlands. For additional inspiration, the Miracle in Millburn plays on a while longer.
There’s no denying the power of “The Miracle Worker,” which is enjoying a high-profile revival at Paper Mill Playhouse. William Gibson’s adaptation of the true-life saga of Helen Keller and her teacher is one of those stories that cannot fail to move an audience.
“The Miracle Worker” also is a fairly simple production to stage, making it one of the most frequently seen plays in the United States. So when a company with a large stage and a lot of seats decides to present this important but intimate drama, several questions come to mind.
Practical considerations include how the director will prevent the huge stage from swallowing the story. Another concern shared by prominent professional theaters is how to make a given production stand out among its many predecessors.
Paper Mill takes on this challenge every year about this time. Last year, it was Tennessee Williams’ “Summer and Smoke.” The season before showcased another inspirational classic, “Diary of Anne Frank.” Both were worthy productions that struggled to connect with the audience beyond the orchestra seats.
Paper Mill, like competing stages across the Hudson, sometimes ups the ante with big-name actors such as “Summer and Smoke” stars Amanda Plummer and Kevin Anderson. Director Susan Fenichell has no such ringer in her cast, although the actors all do an admirable job. And to be fair, it’s hard to find a ringer actress capable of playing a 12-year-old, especially with Miley Cyrus busy on her concert tour.
Instead, Paper Mill has split the daunting responsibility of playing Helen between two up-and-comers: fifth-grader Meredith Lipson of Pennsylvania and New Jersey sixth-grader Lily Maketansky.
Lipson drew the assignment of playing Helen for the press opening and was a bundle of energy in a role normally played by an older “young” actress. Her dark, wild hair, tossed back like a lion’s mane, and high forehead made her eyes stand out like the coal nuggets on a snowman’s face. But those eyes never showed any sign of usefulness as she quickly groped her way around the stage, arms flailing and hands dancing over everything she touched.
The untamed nature of her character—left blend, deaf and largely mute by a childhood fever—leads to the entrance of the title character, Anne Sullivan (Annika Boras). Barely 20 years old and graduated from a special school, traumatized as an orphan and with her own limited vision, Sullivan seemed ill-equipped to reach Helen when many other professionals had tried and failed.
But Helen’s wealthy family in 1880s Alabama was running out of options more humane than a mental institution.
As we all know, Sullivan’s unique perspective and stubborn determination proved to be exactly what Helen needed. The rest is popular history — Helen learned not only to communicate, but became an inspirational speaker, advocate for the disabled and a celebrity, and enjoyed a lifelong friendship with her mentor.
Fenichell does a better job than most directors in adapting an intimate story to the large space. Center stage functions largely as the courtyard of the Keller estate. It later gives way to the dining room set for what is sometimes referred to as the longest battle scene in American drama. Boras and Lipson execute the complex and exhausting scene, in which Anne forces Helen through a lesson in table manners, with admirable precision.
Fenichell also emphasizes the subtle humor that Gibson sprinkles through the story, including Anne’s famous line after emerging from her battle with Helen.
“The room’s a wreck, but her napkin is folded.”
Among the supporting cast, John Hickok nicely blends Captain Keller’s mix of compassion and Confederate bluster, while Emily Dorsch, as Kate, is a sympathetically desperate mother. Scenic designer David Zinn, who also designed the costumes, fills the stage with real estate.
Still, there’s very little here to recommend as a must-see. Certainly, if you have not yet seen “The Miracle Worker,” this would be a fine choice to start. But at $95 for top-priced ticket, you’ll want to search the discount schedule for an acceptable admission.