Attended a performance of John Guare’s revived The House of Blue Leaves this weekend at the newly renovated Mark Taper Forum in downtown LA. And I’m still mulling over the performances and the play, it’s meanings and implications.

In brief, the play is about the Pope’s 1965 visit to New York City and the visits impact on the Shaughnessy family. The family being: Artie, a zookeeper who pines for a new life as a Hollywood songwriter; Bananas, his mentally unstable wife; Ronnie, his AWOL son who wants to bomb the pope and Bunny, his pushy, hyper downstairs neighbor and mistress aggressively dreams of where Artie’s potential could take them.

Almost four decades after John Guare drafted this gem of a play House feels both dated and eerily relevant. The story tackles the thorny issues of vanity, ego, self-deception, celebrity glorification, war and other personal and societal dysfunctions. And Guare successfully manages to tackle these issues with broad farce comedy, one liners, deep emotion and tragic conclusions. It’s a bit much sometimes, but that’s the point. Nobody’s acting sensibly anymore, modern life has unhinged us all.

John Pankow, best known for his stint as cousin Ira on Mad About You, plays Artie Shaughnessy and fits the bill perfectly. He’s Every Man’s every man and you can believe this guy when he says he’s ‘too old to be young talent.’

The night I attended Jane Kaczmarek was out, which was a disappointment. I’m a fan. Fortunately, her understudy, Rebecca Tilney was delightfully sharp and possesses the necessary impeccable comedic timing which the role of Bunny requires.

An affecting Kate Burton takes on the role of Bananas with depth. It was lovely to see her on stage again, after having witnessed her turn as Hedda Gabler on Broadway.

But for me the stand out performance in this top-notch cast belonged to the briefly seen Mia Barron as Corrinna. She plays the deaf starlet girlfriend of Artie’s childhood hotshot friend, Billy. She’s hilarious and yet simultaneously heartbreaking.

The only thing that annoyed me was the blue drape. Considering the blue-leafed house turns out to be an insane asylum I think the choice was a poor one.

All in all… a show to catch if you can. Then maybe you can mull it over for days too.