Photo by Joan Marcus

One of the more improbably entertainment victories scored in the last half-decade has been the emergence of Jim Parsons as a star thanks to The Big Bang Theory, Chuck Lorre’s middle-brow CBS sitcom ode to geekdom. Parsons, an incredibly gifted actor of lanky stature and a protracted drawl, plays Sheldon Cooper, a misanthropic science genius fascinated by facts but with little use for other people. For him, friends are a convenience and entitlement that requires no reciprocation.

Elwood P. Dowd, however, the protagonist of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvey, the chestnut being reincarnated by Roundabout Theater Company and director Scott Ellis at the Studio 54 Theater, has no problem making attachments. As many fans will remember, either from the 1944 play or its famous film version starring James Stewart as Elwood, he has a best friend. The only worries concerning those around him are that no one can see Harvey and that Elwood claims him to be a real, talking six-foot-tall rabbit.

Despite a substantial cast of characters, Chase’s play is both stuffy and yet under-stuffed, plot-wise. It contains but a few mildly entertaining misunderstandings and some mildly sharp musings. There are barely enough to fill one act, let alone the show’s two. When Veta (Jessica Hecht, in the role that own Josephine Hull a Supporting Actress Oscar), Elwood’s society-minded sister, tries to have her son committed, on-call therapist Lyman Sanderson (Morgan Spector) ends up putting her away instead. When she is released, chief psychologist William Chumley (Charles Kimbrough), fascinated in Elwood as a subject, opts to inject him with a drug that will make him “normal” (read into that what you will about any group’s decision about what accounts for wrong or right behavior in a person, but you’re on your own; Chase broaches the subject but then avoids probing it further).

Harvey dances somewhere between the literal and metaphorical, however. Is it possible that Harvey actually exists? The play posits no, while through some resourceful sleight-of-hand, Ellis’s production itself answers a firm maybe. The production also dials down Elwood’s alcoholism to make him more reliably aware.  What Parsons, the first to play Elwood since Stewart, then does is to make Elwood seem like the one with the tightest grip on reality among those he encounters. His calmness unnerves everyone around him. He shows how Elwood’s remarkable observation has left him in the minority, and subjected him to speculation. Elwood has dealt with people his entire life, and almost all of them have disappointed or hurt him to some degree. Real or not, to him, Harvey is the first true friend he has made. It isn’t that he is afraid for the others in his life to actually see Harvey at all. It’s that he feels Harvey doesn’t deserve to be forced to encounter all the others.

Ellis directs the Harvey ensemble to a win-some-lose-some effect. Kimbrough and Tracee Chimo (as Veta’s daffy daughter Myrtle Mae) are wonderfully in period, creating subtly comic caricatures that reveal themselves a bit more from scene to scene. Hecht and Spector, on the other, are a bit more obvious; they occasionally cheapen the material they think they are raising, and add to its dated feel. On the other hand, David Rockwell’s revolving set suggests the perfect amount of period detail and commentary on both the Dowd home and Chumley’s sanitarium.

The main reason for Harvey’s revival seems to be as a vehicle for Parsons, who is perfectly suited to filling Stewart’s shoes, offering a gentility that masks Elwood’s observations of human flaw without totally disguising them. But all of the actor’s prominent roles – in Harvey, Big Bang, even last year’s The Normal Heart revival, in which he played a featured part – ask him to speak in non-contemporary rhythms. (Elwood even shares Sheldon’s quirky specificity. When a taxi driver responds to a dinner invitation by saying “Glad to,” Elwood’s response is to say “When? When would you be glad to?”) What this actor needs to do to maintain his currency – and it would be a real shame for his to be misspent – is grab onto something a bit more modern, something that taps into the zeitgeist and allows him to show off grittier edges. (This also applies to two other performers, Amy Adams and Kelli O’Hara, who have yet to grab onto a signature role that fully puts all of their versatile skills on display). The greater question is not whether Harvey will ever be seen, but what kind of career one can expect from the wonderful actor portraying his best friend.

Harvey

Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St. 212-719-1300. www.roundabouttheatre.org. Through Aug. 5.

Harvey

Hot on the heels of last year’s debut in The Normal Heart, two-time Emmy winner Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) returns to the stage in this revival of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic. Parsons is Elwood P. Dowd, the role immortalized on screen by James Stewart, a middle-aged man whose best friend is a 6-foot-tall rabbit. Is Harvey real or a figment of Elwood’s imagination? You’ll have to head over to the Studio 54 Theater to find out. Co-stars include Larry Bryggman (Doubt), Tracee Chimo (Circle Mirror Transformation), Jessica Hecht (A View from the Bridge), Carol Kane (Wicked), Charles Kimbrough (TV’s Murphy Brown) and Rich Sommer (TV’s Mad Men).
In previews now, runs June 14-Aug. 5; $37+. Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., roundabouttheatre.org

Democracy 

This June-long event, running at Williamsburg’s Brick Theater, is dedicated to the idea of putting on a summer theater festival of the people, by the people and for the people in this election year. Eight candidates will campaign against each other in a series of public appearances for the title of “President of the Brick.” The elected official will be given reign over The Brick for two weeks next January and will be entrusted with curating all Brick programming during this time period. Shows include works from Matthew Freeman, Eric John Meyer, Jeremey Catterton, Zack Calhoun and Roger Nasser. Attendance is mandatory, as all voters must cast their ballot in person.
May 31-July 1; $15. The Brick Theater, 575 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, bricktheater.com.

Uncle Vanya

Some of New York’s finest actors have signed on to this world premiere reimagining of the Chekhov classic about a visiting professor and his alluring younger wife at Soho Rep. The winning team of director Sam Gold and writer Annie Baker (The Aliens, Circle Mirror Transformation) have recruited a top-notch ensemble that includes Reed Birney, Maria Dizzia, Georgia Engel, Peter Friedman, Matthew Maher,  Rebecca Schull, Michael Shannon, Paul Thureen and Merritt Wever. Take note: a June 19 benefit performance will include a post-show vodka reception with the cast and creative team.
Opens June 7; $0.99-$40. Soho Rep Theatre, 46 Walker St., sohorep.org.

Sovereign

The conclusion to Mac Rogers’ Honeycomb trilogy is off-off-Broadway’s answer to The Return of the King, and not just because of the similarities in the title. This play, part of Gideon Productions in collaboration with the BFG Collective at the Secret Theater, will confirm the fates of the characters we’ve come to love in Advance Man and Blast Radius, particularly Ronnie (Hanna Cheek), now a hardened governor lording over a slowly rebuilding human race and her defiant brother Abbie (Stephen Heskett). Rogers’ trilogy, directed by Jordana Williams, has offered so many surprising turns, it’s hard to predict where this tale will end—but incredibly exciting at the same time. It’s safe to say that by now, the Secret is out.
June 14-July 1; $15-$18. The Secret Theatre, 44-02 23rd St., Long Island City, www.gideonth.com .

Into the Woods

The second of this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park entries (following As You Like It) is this James Lapine-Stephen Sondheim favorite, in a production based on the acclaimed 2010 staging at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, London. Woods was just mentioned this week on Glee as the most vocally demanding of Sondheim’s canon—so why revive this tale of what happens to fairy tale characters after their happy ending? With three-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams onboard as the Baker’s Wife, two-time Tony-winner Donna Murphy to play the Witch and current Tony nominee Jessie Mueller (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever) playing Cinderella, why wouldn’t you?
July 23-Aug. 25; free. Delacorte Theater in Central Park, accessible via 81st St. & Central Park West or 79th St. & 5th Ave., shakespeareinthepark.org.