33 Variations

photo: Joan Marcus

Moises Kaufman's play is the sort that gives "middlebrow" a bad name, a superficial modern-day disease drama which has been given the stink of pretentiousness thanks to its historical scenes of Beethoven. Jane Fonda certainly holds the stage despite being absent from it for four and a half decades, but her magnetism can't hide that she's playing an underwritten character whose primary conflict (with her daughter, played by Samantha Mathis) is dramatically inert.