Impressions of Manhattan Theater Club's Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Doug Hughes, in which two half-sisters (the excellent Alison Pill and Katie Finneran) vie for the possession of a stamp collection:
1. Stamp dealer overplayed by Dylan Baker like in a bad sitcom.
2. We in the audience all immediately get it from a character's body language that he is a crook and a con man, and those on the stage don't.
3. Behavior is a bit idiotic.
4. The con man (Bobby Cannavale), dressed and talking like a gangster, physically intrudes, and no one calls the cops.
5. Dialogue in half sentences.
6. If you had stamps worth six million dollars, would you carry them around at night?
7. Act Two has some drama as the dynamic F. Murray Abraham negotiates into absurdity.
8. Ultimately laughable (at, not with).
9. Fine set by John Lee Beatty, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Paul Gallo.
10. This is no American Buffalo, which had an awful lot of believability.
11. Fagedaboutit.
