Two men break into an abandoned house and soon wind up in a standoff with guns drawn. That’s the intriguing premise at the top of Ben Andron’s misguided and muddled three-hander Broken Snow. Tom Cavanaugh’s Steven claims to be in law enforcement, though he’s not exactly forthcoming with either a warrant or a badge, while Michael Longfellow’s James is a hoodie-wearing twentysomething who’s quicker with a quip than a full explanation of why he’s broken into the place himself. Turns out both have dubious motives for the abandoned-home invasion. They also have a personal connection to the recently diseased Kris, a mysterious bully of a man played by Tony Danza in a series of flashbacks.
The flashbacks are intended to build tension around the exact relationship of the characters and the ominous backstory of Kris. These scenes are accompanied by a shift in lighting (by Jeff Croiter) on Scott Adam Davis’s stylishly simple three-tiered set as well as a whoosh of sound (designed by Bill Toles) as if we’re in some ’60s cartoon. Subtlety is not a strong point for director Colin Hanlon, who trots out sad snow machines toward the end of the intermissionless one act to literalize all the lame wintry metaphors.
Andron’s plot isn’t so much twisty as it is a tangled jumble of clichés, leading to a series of reveals that will leave you scratching your head not in surprise but in befuddlement. The program says the action takes place in the present day, but Danza doesn’t seem old enough to be a WWII survivor with a twentysomething son — let alone a morally compromised thug for reasons that strain credulity when he finally coughs them up, again in flashback. (Think Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man.)
It doesn’t help that Danza brings a lethargic casualness to his speeches, which avoid the blunt talk you’d expect of a tough guy for high-falutin’ mixed metaphors, like a repeated reference to a “serpent with black feathery wings.” (No, serpents don’t typically have wings.) Longfellow, meanwhile, makes no discernible effort to distinguish between his present-day character and the 8-year-old boy he plays in flashbacks. Cavanagh acquits himself fine — but his character behaves in ways that make less sense the more we learn about the situation.
Broken Snow has a surface slickness that turns out to be more like black ice, leaving everyone slipping and sliding and ultimately flat on their asses. ★☆☆☆☆
BROKEN SNOW
Theatre71, Off Broadway
Running time: 85 minutes (with no intermission)
Tickets on sale through May 24 for $50 to $112