Photo by Joan Marcus

Dead Accounts, is, for better or worse, best known as that “Katie Holmes” play, since it is largely the presence of its tabloid favorite star that finally led the show to Broadway after a decent reception in Cincinnati. But very quickly it is double Tony-winner Norbert Leo Butz who emerges as the true star of Accounts, Theresa Rebeck’s latest wisp of a Broadway show.

Butz plays Jack, one of six siblings who grew up in a suburban Cincinnati household presided over by matriarch Barbara (Jayne Houdyshell). One night, Jack enigmatically sneaks back to his childhood home, leaving his New York job, apartment and wife behind, with a thousand dollars’ worth of Graeter’s ice cream in tow. We first meet him devouring the dairy late at night with Lorna (Holmes), the only sibling still living at home and the only one ever seen onstage. Jack, who shares hyperkinetic theatre DNA with Burn This’ Pale, uses the milquetoast-esque Lorna primarily as a sounding board for his own manic anecdotal pontificating.

Eventually, we learn more about why Jack has fled Manhattan, the whereabouts of his wife, and why he is so comfortable buying bottomless amounts of ice cream, pizza and cheese Coneys. None of these revelations come as much of a surprise, but Rebeck seems to want them to, stretching them out so as to etch an aura of suspense to her nominally comedic plot – so I will refrain from divulging most of them here. (Jack’s situation directly applies to the play’s title.) But the end result, even with veteran director Jack O’Brien using plenty of tricks in his tool belt to establish a sense of tonal harmony, is an anemic work both lacking in a sense of identity and resolution.

Accounts is at its (relative) best when Jack’s histrionics take center stage, putting some wonderful – not to mention wonderfully disciplined – physicality on display (no surprise to anyone who witnessed his astonishing “Don’t Break the Rules” number in Catch Me If You Can) in his many endless riffs comparing the warmth of the Midwest to the unfeeling Big Apple. Scenic designer David Rockwell certainly deserves credit for a very realistic simulation of middle American domesticity. But under the surface, Accounts strives to be something both darker and deeper, with commentary on the current financial crisis, family and how both have tainted the American dream. And yet the show cannot sustain these themes. Crowd-pleasing monologues by both Butz and Holmes about, respectively, the hollowness of materialistic and the callowness of the banks come out of nowhere. Additionally, a thread about their ill offstage father is a red herring that dangles without any structural or dramatic heft to the show. Rebeck, clinging to sitcom formula, dilutes any potential statement about the corrupting forces of greed with her own cheap tricks.

Another problem is that Lorna, single, never married, and still pined for by Jack’s loyal friend, Phil (Josh Hamilton), remains a cipher. Sustained references to an unnecessary diet she keeps breaking every time Jack totes home junk food suggest a subtext that never rises to the surface. (Do we ever even learn what she does for a living?) It’s a flat, unchallenging role that Holmes embraces without authenticating. There is also little variation in her line readings, which mainly traffic in a shrill lane of weary but well-meaning indigence. Judy Greer, too, seems a bit out of her element as a shallow ice queen. Hamilton and Houdyshell are consummate pros, however. Both have some very subtle, spontaneous-feeling reactions in their scenes, and make one wish they were included in more of them. But it is Butz who dominates Accounts, adding far more currency than Rebeck herself seems able to supply.

Dead Accounts

Music Box Theatre, 249 W. 45th St. Through Feb. 24. www.deadaccountsonbroadway.com

Yesterday I posted my predictions for the winners on Sunday’s 66^th Annual Tony Awards telecast. Below, my feelings about who will and who should go home with the gold in the musical categories:

Best Musical: Nominees include the already-shuttered Leap of Faith, Newsies, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and Once. This is a rather humdrum list. Once is truly a play with music, as End of the Rainbow and Peter and the Starcatcher both identified themselves this season, but it opted to classify itself as a musical, so I’ll play it as it lays. And it lies at the head of the pack here, challenged only by the crowd-pleasing Newsies. Who would have thought that Newsies, based on a bomb Disney movie musical from twenty years ago, would be the Goliath in this race? I still find it a middling musical, and as the more commercial one, would benefit less from a Tony win than Once, which could use the push. I, perhaps foolishly, grant the win to Once, which succeeds better on its own (slightly problematic) terms than the other nominees.

Will win: Once

Should win: Once

Should have been nominated: absolutely nothing else this season

Best Direction of a Musical: Nominees include Jeff Calhoun (Newsies), Kathleen Marshall (Nice Work If You Can Get It), Diane Paulus (The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), and John Tiffany (Once). Tiffany will likely prevail here, and should: he managed to fuse a lot of unorthodox moving parts to turn Once into The Little Show That Could. Personally, I’d vote for Follies’ Eric Schaeffer over this quartet, but he didn’t make the cut.

Will win: Tiffany

Should win: Tiffany

Should have been nominated: Eric Schaeffer, Follies

Best Leading Actor in a Musical: Nominees include Danny Burstein (Follies), Jeremy Jordan (Newsies), Steve Kazee (Once), Norm Lewis (Porgy), and Ron Raines (Follies). Sometimes I play this game, where I put my money on the actor I want to win less, as karmic insurance that the one I want to win more will prevail. So even though the general consensus has it that long overdue veteran Burstein will win for his definitive portrayal of Buddy, I’ll stick the much-hyped Jordan instead. All the while, I feel that a solid Lewis and especially Kazee are being overlooked in the mix, particularly the latter nominee, whose delicate work headlining this year’s sleeper hit absolutely deserves recognition.

Will win: Jordan

Should win: Burstein or Kazee

Should have been nominated: no one

Best Leading Actress in a Play: Nominees include Jan Maxwell (Follies), Audra McDonald (Porgy), Cristin Milioti (Once), Kelli O’Hara (Nice Work), and Laura Osnes (Bonnie and Clyde). I’m a huge proponent of Maxwell’s work this year; her rendition of “Story of Jessie and Lucy” slew me, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it all year. Also, Milioti’s idiosyncratic blend of tenderness and pluck was a big driving force behind Once’s success – her “The Hill” has also haunted me all season. But this one looks like McDonald’s race to lose, and that rankles me. Though it’s her first award as a leading performer, McDonald will set a record with five acting wins – tying Julie Harris and Angela Lansbury – and I just don’t think her Bess is harrowing or transcendent enough to earn that career milestone (one that took Lansbury an additional four decades to hit, at that). Still she’s a beloved member of the community, and a win seems all but assured.

Will win: McDonald

Should win: Maxwell

Should have been nominated: Bernadette Peters, Follies

Best Featured Actor in a Play: Nominees include Philip Boykin (Porgy), Michael Cerveris (Evita), David Alan Grier (Porgy), Michael McGrath (Nice Work), and Josh Young (Jesus Christ Superstar). Except for McGrath, all of the nominees here are nominated for revivals, and even Nice Work dusts off a bunch of Gershwin standards. I give McGrath the edge over Cerveris, but for me, Boykin stands out the most. His Crown was riveting, memorable and incredibly well-sung. He buoyed Porgy to places it didn’t go when he wasn’t onstage.

Will win: McGrath

Should win: Boykin

Should have been nominated: Patrick Page, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (yes, really)

Best Featured Actress in a Musical: Nominees include Elizabeth A. Davis (Once), Jayne Houdyshell (Follies), Judy Kaye (Nice Work), Jessie Mueller (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever), and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Ghost the Musical). Mueller was the bright light in an otherwise execrable misfire, and Houdyshell brought humor and subtlety to a small but memorable part. Still, I said it in my review http://nypress.com/hard-work/, this is Kaye’s to win. Note to those who want a Tony: put a chandelier in your show, too.

Will win: Kaye

Should win: Houdyshell or Mueller

Should have been nominated: Melissa van der Schyff, Bonnie or Bryona Marie Parham or NaTasha Yvette Williams, Porgy

Let’s see how my predictions go!