Theater review: ‘The Book Club’ a very thin read

Bottom line: More O. Henry than "War and Peace."

During a weekend curtain speech for “The Book Club Play,” Horizon Theatre’s Lisa Adler asked how many audience members belonged to a book club. Suddenly, it seemed as if more hands were waving in the air than not.

It will probably come as no surprise to you that the most private of intellectual pursuits has been turned into a social fad. Whether the work of Oprah or not, the book club trend in America is wildly prolific. So if nothing else, Karen Zacarías’ new play is a marvelous marketing opportunity for theaters trying to fill seats with the apparently endless supply of readers who’ve hopped the trend.

In Zacarías’ tale, a self-infatuated newspaper columnist named Ana (Wendy Melkonian) allows a documentary camera into her living room to record the discussions of a group that includes Ana’s lovable lunk of a husband, Rob (Bryan Brendle); her upstart colleague Lily (Danielle Deadwyler); loopy law school dropout Jen (Maria Rodriguez-Sager); and Carlos Museum curator Will (John Benzinger). Carlos Museum? Yes, the playwright has apparently left a few blanks in the text for localizing the storytelling.

Alas, it’s just one more device for trying to pep up a lightweight play. Unlike Lisa Kudrow’s brilliant HBO series “The Comeback” — which used the frame of reality TV to capture a small-screen star’s lack of self-awareness to hilarious effect — Zacarías’ parade of one-liners and peccadilloes feels inert and pointless. Though Ana and her klatch will undergo an education of sorts as they gather to discuss everything from “The Age of Innocence” to “The Da Vinci Code,” you can feel the author stretching and straining to work out the story.

It may be funny to see characters cringe at the realization that their every blooper and misstep is being captured on film, but it soon wears thin. A series of cameos in which random folks from across the country talk about their favorite books adds nothing to the material. It’s just there. And don’t even get me started on the final predictable gag that befalls Ana.

What redeems this production are the performances that director Jeff Adler coaxes from the ensemble and the handsome work of set designers Moriah and Isabel Curley-Clay (sets), who envision Ana and Rob’s home as handsomely detailed, wainscoted and book-filled.

Remarkably expressive and rubber-faced, Melkonian has a deliciously good time with Ana. Phony and controlling, she melts down when the group votes down James Joyce’s “Ulysses’’ and throws a tantrum at the thought of a new group member. Enter Alex (Dan Triandiflou), a comparative lit professor invited by Jen who turns out to be refreshingly lacking in pretense.

Brendle’s Rob is a cuddly foil to the uptight Ana. Deadwyler is delightfully energetic in a role that echoes the title character of “All About Eve.” Benzinger brings his trademark quirkiness to the uptight Will, and Triandiflou’s Alex is a calm voice of reason in the chaos. Finally, Rodriguez-Sager proves yet again to be really charming when it comes to playing characters with heart.

“The Book Club Play” is a breezily entertaining comedy that’s good for a few cheap laughs. It’s just that the revelations and epiphanies here read more like dime-store fiction than a masterpiece.