AMERICAN REFRAINS

“Hold On to Me Darling,” Our Town,” and Sump’n Like Wings.”

- HELEN SHAW

Kenneth Lonergan's "Hold On to Me Darling," a discursive, queasily romantic comedy about the emptiness of American celebrity, is back for another stint Off Broadway. At the Lucille Lortel, the director Neil Pepe is largely reprising his Atlantic Theatre production from eight years ago; the "Hold On" cast features three of the same actors, and Walt Spangler's set, a turntable procession of luxury hotel rooms and unpretentious Tennessee interiors, is almost identical to his earlier version, down to the number of deer antlers on one fella's wall.

One change is crucial, though. The part originally played by Timothy Olyphant has been taken over by Adam Driver a specialist in magnetic bruteswhose recent movie roles have tended to be titular titans of industry and/or guys with accents. (He is Ferrari in "Ferrari," Gucci in "House of Gucci," and the megalomaniac in "Megalopolis.") In "Hold On," Driver plays Strings McCrane, a country-music superstar suffering an identity crisis after his mother's sudden death. In the hotel room where he's retreated in his grief-Mama hated his life style, and he wants to abjure fame in her memory-Strings impulsively takes up with the in-house (married) massage therapist, Nancy (Heather Burns); he then returns to his Tennessee home town with a crazy plan to operate a feed store with his half brother (CJ Wilson), at which point he instantly falls for his sweet-tempered, regulardegular cousin (Adelaide Clemens).

Strings is not the sharpest tack on the corkboard. Narcissistic and cosseted, he simultaneously believes that celebrity obsession has ruined the culture at his mother's funeral, his own family members ask him for an autograph-and also that he's an American icon with importance beyond his music. "If Strings McCrane turns bad, the rest of the country can't be far behind," Nancy says, telling him what he wants to hear.