Whimsies of the Sex Wars YOU NEVER CAN TELL

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The showiest performances, however, come from members of two famous stage families playing her daffy younger offspring. John David Cullum, son of Tony Winner John Cullum, and Amanda Plummer, daughter of Tony Winners Christopher Plummer and Tammy Grimes (and already a Tony winner herself for Agnes of God), seem alternately feral infants and world-weary philosophers, and choose in both guises to say absolutely anything that comes into their heads. Cullum is merely hilarious. Plummer, who in previous roles has reflected her father's wounded-poet vulnerability, augments it in this part with echoes of her mother's domineering-dowager routine: the cock of the head, the tightening of the throat, the sudden nasal bray that can bring down the house on even routine lines like, "The old story. We talk too much." This captivating combination of fragility and ferocity makes one wonder if Plummer has already secured the title as the most distinctive actress of her generation. --By William A. Henry III

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