Theater: Room for Improvement

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A smitten London critic described Nicole Kidman's performance in The Blue Room as "pure theatrical Viagra," but the medication Broadway has needed most in recent weeks is Valium. As David Hare's new play, in which both Kidman and co-star Iain Glen appear briefly in the nude, prepared to transfer from London to New York City, trend-conscious theatergoers seemed headed for a nervous breakdown: the clamor for tickets exceeded anything in recent Broadway memory.

Now, the morning after. The Blue Room is Hare's adaptation of La Ronde, Arthur Schnitzler's once scandalous play in which 10 characters engage in a daisy chain of sexual encounters. Hare updates the play in predictable ways--the soldier becomes a taxi driver; the "young miss" a miniskirted model--and has all the parts played by the two stars. The casting gimmick, along with the chicly impersonal production (a semiabstract set framed in neon), makes the vignettes seem more facile and obvious: Schnitzler's acid portrayal of sex as the great leveler on a climb up the social ladder now looks more like Love, American Style.

And Kidman? The Australian actress slides deftly into each of her five roles, though her accent as the model seems lost somewhere between Los Angeles and Sydney. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with her performance except that any of 20 other competent stage actresses could have done it. Not many of them, of course, would also look as good in the buff (from behind, for about 10 seconds) or be able to command the kind of hype of which great letdowns are made.

--R.Z.