THEATER REVIEW : Seasoned Actors Help Flawed Revival of ‘Morning’s at Seven’

The four women in the NBC drama “Sisters” have nothing on the four elderly sisters in Paul Osborn’s 1939 classic “Morning’s at Seven.”

The quarrels, the crises, the shifting alliances, one sister quasi-involved with another’s husband--Osborn had it all first.

“Morning’s at Seven,” now in a handsome but somewhat flawed revival at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, opened and closed quickly on Broadway 64 years ago, but has had great success in revivals.

While there’s nothing fresh about the material, the joys come from the clever plot twists and the chance to watch seasoned actors delve deeply into deliciously rich characterizations.

Under Craig Noel’s direction, Globe veterans Sada Thompson, Katherine McGrath, Richard Kneeland, Don Sparks and Lynne Griffin rise to the occasion. But the rest of the nine-person cast is hit and miss.

Jealousy exudes from the house where Aaronetta Gibbs (McGrath), the unmarried sister, has lived all her life with sister Cora Swanson (Roo Brown) and her sister’s husband Theodore (Mitchell Edmonds). They’re next door to sister Ida Bolton (Thompson), wife of Carl (Robert Symonds), who is given to spells in which he questions the direction of his life.

The Boltons’ 40-year-old son, Homer (Sparks), can’t bring himself to propose to his long-term fiancee Myrtle Brown (Griffin). And the fourth sister, Esther Crampton (Eve Roberts), has been warned by her husband, David (Kneeland), that they will separate if he catches her visiting her family--which she, of course, can’t resist doing.

The unpredictability of McGrath’s prickly Aaronetta keeps everyone wonderfully on edge. Kneeland brings style to the sharp-tongued David, and the wide-eyed Thompson proves herself a great re actor. Sparks, who moves instantaneously from shrunken intimidation to puffed-up penguin, and Griffin, with her knack for goofy sweetness, seize the best scenes.

On the other side, Brown’s Ida seems too strident to have put up with a complicated triangle for the last 50 years. Edmonds finds the ease in good-natured Theodore, but there’s a hole where the tension caused by Aaronetta’s threats ought to be.

Director Noel clearly has a loving feel for this material, but this “Morning’s at Seven” is like a chamber music piece that has not yet achieved perfect harmony. And yet, when the right chords are struck, it gives intimations of how deeply pleasurable the piece, in perfection, could be.

* “Morning’s at Seven,” Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m., Saturday-Sunday matinees, 2 p.m. Ends June 20. $18-$32. (619) 239-2255. Running time: 2 hours, 12 minutes.