'Secrets of the Trade' Asks a Lot, But Doesn't Tell Much

James Leynse

Backstage Broadway bait-and-switch: John Glover, Bill Brochtrup, Amy Aquino, and Noah Robbins

Details

Secrets of the Trade
By Jonathan Tolins
Primary Stages
59 East 59th Street, 212-753-5959

Related Content

• Kinky Boots Kicks Up Some Familiar High Heels; Buyer and Cellar Prowls Barbra's Mall
  April 10, 2013
• Watch Harvard Students Send a Burger Into Space
  November 14, 2012
• More Misreporting On the West Village Explosives Arrests
  January 4, 2013
• Does Cyrano de Bergerac Win By A Nose?
  October 12, 2012
• Now Village Bomber Aaron Greene Was a Nazi All Along
  January 10, 2013

More About

• Jonathan Tolins
• Martin Kerner
• Harvard University
• Theater
• Off-Broadway

His verbal skills, fortunately, keep mitigating one's cumulative frustration. Even at their most factitious, his characters find pungent, pointed things to say. The gifted actors Shakman has assembled, whom he moves about with speed and dexterity, don't overlook the faintest turn of a syllable: Bill Brochtrup, as Kerner's downtrodden assistant, builds a full tragicomic portrait from a few scraps of dialogue; Robbins brings range and authenticity to his extremely sketchy role; Aquino serves a hearty plateful of pained vulnerability, spiced with freshly ground asperity, which Nelson decorates, contrapuntally, with sly, flavorsome twists of rue. Best of all, there's Glover, seizing every opportunity in a role that travels from aristocratic hauteur to falling-down drunkenness, the latter charged with such inventive body English that I now want to see this invaluable actor in a dance role.

mfeingold@villagevoice.com