In ‘Bad Jews,’ religious feuding gets personal

8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through Feb. 22. $26-$45. Actor's Express, 887 W. Marietta St. N.W., Suite J-107, Atlanta. 404-607-7469, actors-express.com.

Bottom line: A disappointment.

On paper, the arrival of "Bad Jews" is a moment for Actor's Express to savor.

Playwright Joshua Harmon developed the script while in residency at the Atlanta theater during the 2010-2011 season. The play, about a couple of cousins fighting for a religious artifact that belonged to their recently departed grandfather, went on to productions at New York's Roundabout Theatre and, according to American Theatre magazine, is one of the most produced plays of the moment. (Mazel tovs all around.)

It’s unfortunate, then, that this production, as cast and directed by Freddie Ashley, fails to live up to the hype.

As Liam, Wyatt Fenner gives a bizarre, strangely crafted performance, while Galen Crawley (as his nemesis cousin, Daphna) doesn’t seem possessed of the preternaturally sharp fangs that are the hallmark of her strident, overweening character.

I don’t get Daphna’s motivations for willing herself the coveted artifact. She was close to her grandfather. She has a healthy dose of entitlement. She considers Liam and his younger brother, Jonah (the lovely Louis Gregory), to be spoiled rich kids (which they probably are). But the playwright fails to explain what’s really eating at Daphna, and Crawley doesn’t find the right tone or land the zingers (of which there are many).

Liam, as the oldest male heir, may have dubious (or pure) reasons for coveting the "chai" (as the charm is called in Hebrew). But Fenner's over-the-top interpretation doesn't serve the story. As best as I can tell from what I know of Fenner's work, he seems to have a naturally spooked quality, but here, he's more neurotic even than the mass murderer he played in Steve Yockey's "Pluto" at Actor's Express in 2013. Arriving in New York just after the grandfather's funeral (his excuse is that he dropped his iPhone from a ski lift in Aspen), Fenner captures Liam in such full-meltdown mode that he's not even funny. (It's a poorly calibrated, cloying performance.)

So we have this bruising, bitter dark comedy, and neither lead is really human enough to make me give a flip. Is there a director in the house?

Thankfully, Gregory’s take as the more sensitive of the other two brothers is more affecting and nuanced. (Keep your eye on Jonah; he may be hiding a whale of a surprise under his shy resolve.) A good bit of the cat fighting centers on Melody, the shiksa girlfriend Liam brings home. Rachel DeJulio, who wears a clunky blond wig, exudes an unpolished quality that fits her character, yet the performance sometimes feels a little too tentative and muddled. But is that DeJulio’s reading, or is she just feeling uncertain about being here? Hard to tell.

The play seems to take its time falling into place, and the block of time when Jonah and Liam leave seems longer than it would in real life. On the upside, Kristina Wright’s set and Elizabeth Rasmusson’s costumes are appropriate to the milieu. The brothers’ apartment says “money,” while Daphna’s sweatpants and Vassar T-shirt are cheap and unbecoming.

“Bad Jews” may not be a bad play, but this production fails to impress. Mean people suck. But what of it? Family feuds should be more fun than this.