Writing Strength in ‘American Plan’

In some ways, Richard Greenberg resembles a kind of East Coast Tennessee Williams. While Williams wrote complex, deeply felt plays about the decline of Southern gentry families, Greenberg does much the same thing for the disillusioned rich in postwar New York.

“The American Plan,” Greenberg’s worthy follow-up to the celebrated “Eastern Standard,” takes place at a Catskills resort in the summer of 1959, where the neurotic Lili Adler (Lisa Steele) is struggling to break loose from her mother Eva (Irene Roseen), an imperious German widow. When a young preppy journalist named Nick Lockridge (Steven C. Johnson) happens on the scene, mother and daughter both try to use him to gain the upper hand. But their schemes are foiled by Nick’s own mysterious past.

The new production at Hollywood Court Theatre fails to get the most out of Greenberg’s text, mostly due to Avner Garbi’s aimless direction and some awkward performances. Yet the play is so strongly written that it almost transcends any defect of production, yielding a touching and deeply satisfying dramatic experience.

* “The American Plan,” Hollywood Court Theatre, 6817 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends Feb. 26. $12.50. (213) 486-4419. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.