Inge’s trusty vehicle
Late in the splendidly poignant production of William Inge’s “Bus Stop,” which opened Thursday at the Old Globe, the brash young cowboy Bo Decker plaintively says he no longer wants to return to his beloved ranch in Montana.
“It’s the lonesomest place I ever did see,” Bo tells his long-suffering friend and father-surrogate Virgil Blessing. Virgil, his quiet eyes signaling agreement, just nods that all-knowing nod of his.
Loneliness and isolation were Inge’s favorite themes, notably in “Come Back, Little Sheba,” his Academy Award-winning screenplay “Splendor in the Grass” and his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Picnic.” But it was “Bus Stop” in which he mixed humor and sexuality to full effect. The 1956 movie with Marilyn Monroe made the play an American classic.
Stranded in a Kansas diner, circa 1950, an unlikely group of wanderers -- some fleeing their past, some rushing to an uncertain future -- spend a night sharing their sadness, disappointments and yearnings.
As Bo, Ben Fox hits the right notes of hunky sexual energy mixed with a callow temperament, bravado masking insecurity. Bo’s education -- sexual and emotional -- is the frame that holds “Bus Stop” together.
From Virgil, he gets lectures. From Sheriff Will Masters, played wonderfully by Christian Kauffmann, he gets a much-needed smash in the mouth when he refuses to stop mauling Cherie, the tart with dreams of respectability, played by Kate Steele with sexiness and vulnerability.
Stephen Payne as Virgil has the whiskey voice and cracker-barrel wisdom of the weathered cowboy who speaks little but says much. Payne is a gem.
“You don’t drink, you don’t chew. You ought to have some bad habits when things go bad with women,” he tells Bo.
Kevin Mahoney as the overbearing, macho bus driver Carl, and DeAnna Driscoll as Grace, the diner owner with a low opinion of men but an occasional need for a quick romp, are foils to the more heavily freighted push-pull between Bo and Cherie.
If there are disappointments, it is Karen Zippler’s overly bland portrayal of Elma Duckworth, the high-school-age waitress who quotes Shakespeare, and Old Globe regular Jonathan McMurtry’s slurry, forceless work as Dr. Gerald Lyman, the boozy, self-loathing, thrice-married literature professor.
Lyman has some of the play’s best lines -- “I’m too egotistical to be offended by anything anyone says” -- but McMurtry’s delivery is more woolly than Wilde. Alas.
Robert Morgan’s costumes are perfect, and Robin Sanford Roberts has captured the essential cheerlessness of a four-table diner in the middle of nowhere.
This “Bus Stop,” directed by Joseph Hardy, has the Midwestern feel that was the mark of Inge, where the landscape and the emotions are flat. Life has been reduced to repetition. “There ain’t no place for me to get away to,” complains Cherie.
Cherie and Bo provide the sparks, but if there is wisdom in “Bus Stop,” it is Bo and Virgil. One is all desire, the other all resignation.
“A man has got a right to the things he loves,” Bo proclaims.
“Not unless he deserves them,” Virgil answers.
*
‘Bus Stop’
Where: The Old Globe, Balboa Park, San Diego
When: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, 7 p.m.; Thursdays, Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m.
Ends: Feb. 29
Price: $19-$52
Contact: (619) 234-5623
Running Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
Ben Fox...Bo Decker
Kate Steele...Cherie
Stephen Payne...Virgil Blessing
DeAnna Driscoll...Grace Hoyland
Christian Kauffmann...Will Masters
Kevin Mahoney...Carl
Jonathan McMurtry...Dr. Gerald Lyman
Karen Zippler...Elma Duckworth
By William Inge. Directed by Joseph Hardy. Set by Robin Sanford Roberts. Costumes by Robert Morgan. Lighting by Aaron Copp. Sound by Paul Peterson. Stage manager Leila Knox.