If this Chicago premiere production of The Da Vinci Code at Drury Lane was a game of Clue, one might say the audience was bludgeoned in the theater by too much exposition. But that’s mostly the fault of the source material, which also provides a paper-thin cast of characters for the actors to work with.
I have a history with this particular pop-culture phenomenon. I was the first critic to review Dan Brown’s novel, for Booklist. As I read the bound galley on a cross-country plane ride, I realized the book had all the makings of a best-selling vacation read despite its cardboard characters and leaden dialogue. For these types of thrillers, the plot drives the success. Here’s my 2003 review of the novel in all its faded glory:
“In a two-day span, American symbologist Robert Langdon finds himself accused of murdering the curator of the Louvre, on the run through the streets of Paris and London, and teamed up with French cryptologist Sophie Neveu to uncover nothing less than the secret location of the Holy Grail. It appears that a conservative Catholic bishop might be on the verge of destroying the Grail, which includes an alternate history of Christ that could bring down the church. Whoever is ordering the deaths of the Grail’s guardians–modern-day members of an ancient society descended from the famed Knights Templar–must be stopped before the treasure is lost forever. To do so, Langdon and Neveu have to solve a series of ciphers and riddles while evading a tireless French police commander and a ruthless albino monk. Despite being hampered by clunky flashback sequences and place descriptions that read like tourist brochures, the story is full of brain-teasing puzzles and fascinating insights into religious history and art. Ultimately, Brown’s intricate plot delivers more satisfying twists than a licorice factory.”
But what works over the course of hundreds of printed pages is pure exposition overkill when packed into even a two-and-a-half hour play. Consider this: The audiobook version of the novel runs a soul-killing 17 hours. You need the twisty, complex plot for the thing to work in any medium, but there’s just too much of it to captivate live onstage. You half expect Basil Exposition from the Austin Powers films to pop in for an extended cameo.
The other problem with this production is that, for the climax to work, we have to believe that two of the most learned students of the Grail, Langdon (a game Jeff Parker, doggedly doing his damndest to keep the material engaging even as his character jokes about overusing the word “lecture”) and Sir Leigh Teabing (Bradley Armacost, making a meal of the eccentric old British billionaire scholar role), not to mention super smart cryptologist Neveu (a spunky Vaneh Assadourian), can’t immediately solve a riddle of the caliber we all used to tell classmates in fourth grade. You know the kind I’m talking about: “The one who makes me cannot use me. The one who buys me will always buy me for someone else. The one who uses me doesn’t know it. What am I?” The answer: a coffin. And honestly that one’s trickier than the one that befuddles these geniuses. Sitting in the audience on opening night, it took all my self-control not to shout the answer. But this is not The Rocky Horror Picture Show (alas).
Look, this is a cleverly staged show with solid performances and a handful of fun revelatory moments. If you’re a big Da Vinci Code fan, God bless. The rest of us might be better off staying home with a good book.
The Da Vinci Code runs through June 1 at Drury Lane Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Brett Beiner
