Nothing good about ‘Heidi Chronicles’

Not much to say about Las Vegas Little Theatre's "The Heidi Chronicles." Wendy Wasserstein's Tony-winning comic drama is all about relationships, and there are no relationships in director Megan Marquez's production.

The script takes us with Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s, through the feminist movement, her years of being surprised at how unhappy she is, and finally to the '80s when she learns to compromise between her ideals and her realities.

The very playable script seems doomed from the start here. There's not a single actor among the nine-member cast who doesn't sound as if he's reciting memorized lines. Hard to care about characters when they talk so falsely. Daci Overby as Heidi is so relentlessly whiny that she turns the story into a tale about self-pity.

Even the usually reliable Ron Lindblom is off key. His storybook set piece is bathed in unappealing, stark browns. I have no doubt the visual dreariness is calculated, but I'm equally certain it's miscalculated. What could it mean? A faded scrapbook? A statement that life is ugly? A hint that the designer was in a hurry?