We can’t get enough of dazzling Linda Lavin in ‘Too Much Sun’

No wonder Linda Lavin reunited with Nicky Silver — her hilariously acidic performance in their last collaboration, "The Lyons," won her a Tony nomination. Silver's latest, "Too Much Sun," lets her pull out all the stops. Whether performing a snippet from Euripides or singing "Surabaya Johnny" — in German — she's dazzling.

If only "Too Much Sun" didn't try to do so much.

Lavin plays Audrey Langham, a fading actress whom we first see having an epic meltdown during "Medea" rehearsals in Chicago. By the next scene, she's decamped to the summer beachside house of her estranged daughter, Kitty (Jennifer Westfeldt), and her husband, Dennis (Ken Barnett).

Her unanticipated arrival causes Kitty to binge-eat from the stress, while Dennis bitches about being displaced from the guest room in which he plans to write his novel.

Audrey reveals that she's broke and homeless, so it's not surprising that she spies Winston (Richard Bekins) — the well-off widowed father of Lucas (Matt Dickson), the young pot dealer next door — as a potential sixth husband. Meanwhile, she ignores the desperate entreaties of Gil (Matt Dellapina), the hapless agent's assistant dispatched to return her to Chicago.

There's no shortage of witty one-liners by the author of such dark comedies as "Pterodactyls" and "The Food Chain": "She sent her understudy to my graduation," Kitty wails at one point about her neglectful mom. But the play strains under its overload of subplots, including a secret gay romance, a suicide, domestic abuse, an unexpected pregnancy and Gil's inexplicable obsession with becoming a rabbi.

Director Mark Brokaw fails to make the strained, artificial proceedings cohere, and the supporting players frequently flounder in wildly inconsistent roles. Luckily, he has a star who handles broad comedy and pathos alike with consummate skill.

When she delivers such lines as "Oh, the needy sex . . . I know that sex" with deadpan serenity, she proves again that there can never be too much Lavin.

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