Henry Hettinger

“It’s like you’re 12!” Henry Hettinger’s ex-wife shouts. And similarly, Stephen Cone’s premiere oddly resembles a tween: confounding and yet entirely predictable. As soon as Henry, recently released from prison after serving 20 years for, as he puts it, having a “loving relationship” with a boy, appears on his former wife Melanie’s doorstep, we know that the play’s headed directly for redemption for its titular character. But even by intermission, damned if we know how he’s getting there. Will it be the quirky, warm story of the vexing but lovable ex-husband who returns to woo his former love from her man with that special magic only he had (Mrs. Doubtfire sans nanny getup)? Or simply cuted-up family dysfunction (Family Ties’ Steven Keaton as child molester)?

Henry Hettinger flirts with both paths, but the bulk of the play only reiterates that he’s an unrepentant, if naive, smart-ass. There’s not much about Henry (nor can Nowak invest him with any emotional gravitas) that justifies why Melanie and her new family allow him to plague them. The other performers greatly compensate, most delightfully Schutz as Melanie’s chunky, Christian schmo of a new husband: It’s earnest, awkward Jeremy who early on asks one of the play’s few clear questions, “Henry, what do you want out of life?” Thing is, we never find out.—Megan Powell