‘The Parisian Woman’ plays through March 11 at the Hudson Theatre. 141 W. 44th St., parisianwomanbroadway.com.
There’s no escaping the Trump administration in “The Parisian Woman,” a thin and underwhelming new drama by Beau Willimon (creator of the Netflix series “House of Cards”) starring Uma Thurman (making her Broadway debut) that is more of a daytime soap opera than a political thriller.
In addition to taking place in present-day Washington, D.C., and revolving around figures connected to the political elite, the play indulges in name dropping (Ivanka, Mattis, Kelly) and familiar jargon (“locker room talk,” “fake news”), as if it is a tactic to mask the slightness of the play.
Thurman plays Chloe, the so-called “Parisian Woman.” Chloe did spend some time in Paris after college, but the nickname is more in reference to her cool, cloaked and composed sensibility.
In addition to her husband Tom (Josh Lucas), a well-connected tax attorney, Chloe has multiple lovers of both sexes, including Peter, a newly divorced, emotionally needy banker (Marton Csokas), and a recent law school graduate (Phillipa Soo) who has mapped out an ambitious political future.
When Peter reacts to Chloe’s scorn by preventing Tom from winning an appellate judgeship, Chloe sets out to save the day by blackmailing the newly nominated chair of the Federal Reserve (Blair Brown).
Although the play revolves around heavy-handed plot machinations, it still manages to feel slight and slow. The characters are initially interesting but prove to be one-dimensional. The direction (by Pam MacKinnon) does little to pep up the production.
One gets the sense that “The Parisian Woman” was built specifically as a star vehicle to showcase the actress playing Chloe, to make her alluring and dominant while not demanding much in terms of acting.
Thurman gives a stiff, unvaried, muted performance in which she mostly sits around and delivers her lines with a small grin and a poker face.
The few moments when she attempts to display vulnerability come off as fake.
Brown (whose character tries to make the case that the Republican Party is “too big to fail”) is comparatively looser.
Soo (the original Eliza in “Hamilton”), in a testament to her acting abilities, manages to convey some nuance.
