Not long ago, TV was said to be rotting our brains, shrinking our attention spans, blunting our emotions, and alienating us from one another, even as it promised to connect us to the wide world. Today, of course, the very same concerns surround the Internet and its ubiquitous delivery methods—laptops, tablets, and, especially, mobile phones (television, meanwhile, has entered a much-ballyhooed “golden age”).
West’s protagonist, whose real name is never given, is a young newspaperman in New York. He writes a column answering forlorn letters signed “Broken-hearted, Sick-of-it-all, Desperate, Disillusioned-with-tubercular-husband,” etc. The other guys at the paper, following the lead of a Mephistophelian editor named Shrike, find it all hilarious. But constantly receiving the raw pain of others (“what I want to no is what is the whole stinking business for,” one correspondent writes) begins to affect Miss Lonelyhearts, who identifies more and more with Jesus Christ. He stays pretty unappealing in real life, though—full of lies and something of a shit in his dealings with women.
The resolution involves a betrayal, opens the door to a second chance with Betty, and doesn’t, so far as I can tell, make a lick of sense. As a satire, the play has no bite; as a thriller, it offers no thrills.
Through 6/22: Tue-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM Goodman Theatre 170 N. Dearborn 312-443-3800goodmantheatre.org $10-$30
