NEW YORK TIMES  November 11, 2001

Theater Review

By Alvin Klein

 

Peggy is a junior associate on the move in a big-deal law firm. She needs a paralegal. Tim, dressing casually for such starchy surroundings, wants the job, though he loathes everything it represents. If anything, he's overqualified.

 

At their first meeting, they spar.

 

She does not let him call her sweetheart. He does anyway. If he goes on like that, she says, she'll throw him out of the window. "You've got pseudo-artist written all over you," she says.

 

Peggy does not want to hire him. But she must, for reasons not so clear at first.

 

These characters are in "Naked by the River," the new play at the New Jersey Repertory Company. And it is that rare thing - a bona fide romantic comedy. Think Tracy and Hepburn.

 

"Naked by the River" has deft wordplay by the playwright, Michael T. Folie, sizzling staging by Stewart Fisher, the director, and the sparring skills of Duncan M. Rogers as Tim, and Stephanie Roy as Peggy.

 

The audience is in expert hands. You are sure that what is not so clear will become clear. For example, why does Tim present Peggy with a copy of "The Prince" by Machiavelli? You are willing to wait.

 

In the meantime, something steamy is brewing between Mr. Rogers and Ms. Roy. Their sparring creates sparks.

 

In the second act, Liz Zazzi, as Gabriella, enters, grandly. She is terrific with Mr. Folie's words.

 

Ideas are raised - about changed lives, essential and nonessential compromises, how to be happy in an unhappy world. Sounds like a trip on the self-help inspirational circuit? Take it. What is the theater for if it does not indulge fantasy?