The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: Sea Dog Theater‘s Tuesdays With Morrie

By Dennis W.

There is no villain, no dramatic climax, or any high comedy in Sea Dog Theater’s production of Tuesdays With Morrie written by Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom, but what you do get is a relationship regained and a few rules to live by, wrapped up in a sentimental reconnection of two ‘friends’. Starring Len Cariou (Broadway’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) as Morrie Schwartz, and Christopher J. Domig (Television’s Fleishman’s in Trouble) as Mitch Albom, the play, which is more of a journal, centers itself around more than a dozen visits Mitch Albom made to his college sociology professor at Brandeis University just months before he died. And not much more.

Currently playing at Saint George’s Episcopal Church, the play finds its meaning when Mitch, a successful sports journalist, sees his former professor discussing battling ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, on television. He decides at that moment to make good on his 16-year-old promise to stay in touch after college. What was supposed to be just one visit turns into a regular Tuesday date, much to his surprise. The two spend their time talking about time, life, purpose, and naturally, death. Morrie is still the teacher but now Mitch and the audience are the students. Even though we know Morrie will lose his battle with ALS, the play remains a feel-good story of life’s lessons and some regrets, all tied up in a neat package from someone who knows he is on borrowed time. The end brought some tears from the audience the night I was there, Even the person next to me who resorted to cracking their knuckles (twice) during the performance managed what appeared to be a sniffle.

Cariou and Domig are well-matched. Cariou deftly plays Morrie as somewhere between professor, coach, and dying man. He easily slipped into the role of sage, giving almost a gift to Mitch whose life is in high gear. Mitch, played well by Domig, becomes the perfect receptor for Morrie’s life-lived wisdom. Direction by Erwin Maas (Sea Dog’s Not From Here) helps keep the play moving by having Mitch explore other parts of the stage during comings and goings while Morrie remains chairbound. There is no actual stage but Guy De Lancey’s (Louis Viljoen‘s The Pervert Laura) lighting design creates intimate spaces using deep shadows around the ‘performance area’ of the cavernous high-ceilinged space in the gothic-style church.

Sea Dog Theater delivers two strong acting performances with Tuesdays With Morrie. It doesn’t really stray from the original, but it does bring the sentimental reconnection to life if not much more.