Theater: Scenes from a Marriage

At the end of one-man show Life in a Marital Institution (20 Years of Monogamy in One Terrifying Hour), star and writer James Braly declines to tell audiences whether or not he made good on his threat to leave his monstrous, hippy-dippy wife, leaving us to debate if they stayed together as we file from the theater. If one has been paying attention, there should be no debate: Braly and his wife could never divorce, because who else could possibly want them?

In comparison to his wife Susan, Braly may seem like a saint. Susan is the type of woman who insists on delivering their second child in a dangerous at-home procedure; who freezes placenta while waiting to find the perfect spot to plant a fertility tree; who refuses to wean her children off the breast, which resulted in having a first-grader still suckling at her teat.

But as Braly weaves these (admittedly hilarious) stories of marital woe in with tales of his sister’s deathbed marriage, he refuses to spare his own failings. After the difficult delivery of their second child resulted in breathing problems for the newborn, Braly called three different doctors to ask if they needed to rush to a hospital in order to spare his wife the melancholy of not being near her child if the baby required an incubator. Any man who would play so fast and loose with his child’s life for the sake of a woman who comes across as monstrous as Susan isn’t someone one relishes listening to for 70 minutes in a theater (yes, the subtitle is a misnomer).

Perhaps Braly would come across as more sympathetic if he or director Hal Brooks allowed for a single moment of spontaneity in the show. Unfortunately, Braly comes across as a man who has repeated the same stories to the same hilarious effect for so long that he can glibly rattle them off again without having to think about what he’s saying. All his delivery lacks is a rim shot to make the illusion that audiences are listening to a stand-up comedian complete.

While the tales of Braly’s 20 years of monogamy are funny, he leaves too many questions unanswered. Several times, he mentions having spent some time in a mental institution, but never reveals why. Likewise, his loyalty to Susan in the face of what sounds like insurmountable obstacles stays unexplained. He briefly touches on being the only one in his family still on his first marriage, but sticking to a bad marriage just to buck the odds is a bleak and unsatisfying explanation. Surely there must be a better reason for not fleeing such a strange and unbearable woman; perhaps in a version of the show that doesn’t rely so heavily on ba-dum-bum anecdotes, Braly will tell us.

Thru Aug. 31. SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam St. (betw. 6th Ave. & Varick), 212-691-1555; $40–$55.