Less Moonlight, More Sunshine

Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune has a misleading title. The play is not a metaphor for the old ballad in which “He was her man, but he done her wrong,” and she plugs him with a 44. The theatrical version, which just opened at the Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, features no wrongdoing and no firearms. There is a couple of the same names, however, and nudity with simulated sex right at the outset. The audience may wonder, “Where do we go from here?” but McNally has a plan; the couple in bed will now get acquainted.

Both characters are employees in a restaurant. Frankie is a waitress, and Johnny is a short-order cook who quotes Shakespeare and just about anything else. He admits, “I love the sound of my own voice.” This was their first date.

But now it’s 3a.m. She wants him to leave and he won’t, even after she makes him one of her special cold meatloaf sandwiches, even after she’s becoming anxious and insists: “You said you’d go!”

“I lied,” he answers. Johnny wants more – commitment, marriage, children. She says she can’t have children; he’s ready with, “We’ll adopt!” And in between negotiations, they share bits of their own histories, even their ages, with amendments. No last names, though.

They both share a passion for good music. Johnny calls in an unusual request to the classical radio station to play the most beautiful selection, and the request is answered with “Clair de Lune” by Debussy. As if in response to the music, a moon appears between two of the adjoining buildings; they must look at the moonlight now; it won’t be there later.

The groundwork is in place, and the finish, with early sunlight, establishes the hope of real intimacy, even the domesticity they both crave. But between the end of the first act and the end of the play, Johnny’s love of his own voice – along with some contributions from Frankie – add at least a half-hour of extraneous dialogue. To borrow from the song, O lordy, how they can talk! The audience must also marvel that all this shouting and door-slamming in the small hours of the morning does not generate some protests from the neighbors. (The setting is Frankie’s studio apartment; which is still bigger than Johnny’s.)

In program notes, Director Jasson Minadakis draws parallels between McNally’s 1987 work and the social dilemmas of 2008: “Frankie and Johnny both ache for someone who can see them amid the rapid, nerve-shattering commotion of modern life.” Each is vulnerable; each is needy. An audience might recognize themselves here. In this production, though, the two actors who bring this story to the stage—Terri McMahon and Rod Gnapp -- are handsome people, fit and articulate. Empathy with them is harder to achieve. (The show premiered in 2002 with Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci.)

Still, McMahon and Gnapp took on an enormous script with enormous demands and did a superb job with it. Kat Conley’s rumpled set (with a working kitchen) and Michael Palumbo’s lighting (moonlight included) amplify the story and light up the play.

Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune will be at the Marin Theatre Company through Oct. 5, mature audiences only. It will be followed on Oct. 6 by a “Words and Music” presentation, “I’ll Take Manhattan,” a musical tribute to New York in the 70’s, with two Woody Allen films and a performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

For complete information on either of these shows or for reservations, call the box office, 388-5208, or see the website, www.marintheatre.org.