Bodies and Hearts in the Face of the Monster

Toni Press-Coffman's play about sex and the media reverses the Monica Lewinsky formula: Instead of a powerful older man shtupping a cow-eyed intern, we watch a middle-aged, female mayor seduce a strapping young Spaniard. Press-Coffman writes in a program note that she originally wanted to know if the national indignation about Clinton would make sense with a woman on top. The idea should be rich mulch for a play, and if Press-Coffman had stayed true to it Bodies and Hearts might be worth seeing. Unfortunately, what she ended up with is an overly serious drama of love in the modern age. The mayor, Lillian Sparks, has a brother named Ray, who works construction and writes poems. Ray is involved with two women. One of his girlfriends sleeps with a pompous actor, and at some point very early in the show you stop caring where any of these relationships are headed. It's a dismal, 2-1/2-hour slog. Javier Galito-Cava does respectable work as the young Spaniard, but the rest of the cast can't find its way out from under Press-Coffman's tedious lines or Rafal Klopotowski's ponderous directing. The subtitle -- "a comedy" -- is also an exaggeration.