"Compulsion": Theater Review

In this world premiere, playwright Rinne Groff does a masterful job of dramatizing the life of author and playwright Meyer Levin, who obsessed over bringing The Diary of Anne Frank to the stage. Levin secured, and then lost, an agreement with Anne's father, Otto, to write the stage adaptation of the bestseller. This disappointment spun Levin into a righteous and obsessive spiral for the rest of his life. As the character of Levin (named Sid Silver in this play), Broadway superstar Mandy Patinkin is passionate, paranoid, sanctimonious, pitiful, and awe-inspiring — all the elements that make this portrait of an artist undeniably brilliant. Matte Osian and the talented Hannah Cabell play all the other characters, while the spirit of Anne herself is embodied by a haunting marionette. Compulsion grapples with artistic ambition, moral obligation, Hollywoodizing history, and neurotic blindness all in one thrilling night of theater.