Two-time Emmy Award winner Daniel J. Travanti of Hill Street Blues is making his New York stage debut in Oren Safdie’s latest play, The Last Word… . Travanti has done a great deal of regional theater and, in fact, originated the role of “Henry Grunwald” at the Malibu Stage Company where The Last Word… had its premiere last season. Under Alex Lippard’s direction, Travanti proves himself to be a big stage presence. He makes Grunwald a colorfully irascible character who dominates the stage.

Unfortunately, Safdie’s play is very thin both in content and structure. In Private Jokes, Public Places , his last new work seen in New York, Safdie created a one-character drama in which a young woman presented her architecture project to an unseen committee. The new play is in the form of a job interview. Grunwald, a Viennese Jew who lost everything when he fled the Nazis before the Holocaust and is now a retired advertising executive in New York, wants to fulfill his dream of becoming a successful playwright. He has placed an ad in the newspaper for an assistant to help him with his paperwork as he has become legally blind. Adam Green plays Len Artz, the equally opinionated New York University playwrighting student who comes for an interview.

Both Grunwald and Artz are both strong personalities with chips on their shoulders. As set up by the author, every turn of the conversation turns into an argument: names, time schedules, cell phones, celebrated writers, careers, etc. Grunwald leads the conversation to a series of questions which test Artz’ friendship and loyalty. Ultimately, the play is a generation gap comedy: where Grunwald admires Shakespeare and despises David Mamet, Artz can not see what all the fuss is about Shakespeare but admires Mamet. Much of this is predictable once their biases and age difference are established. Most of the arguments are on the level of banter rather than deep soul searching. When the climax is reached, it is rather tame after 80 minutes of their discord.

Travanti and Green work well together but the play is driven by Grunwald’s questions which seem to be a check-off list drawn up by the author. Grunwald’s tirades against anything modern or the decline of civility as he sees it become tiresome after awhile. Most of the men’s conversation is very superficial. When they finally read examples of scenes from their plays, it is hard to be impressed. The interactions do not change either of them. They remain convinced of their own opinions: Grunwald is a Luddite; Artz has little experience and little patience. The use of both the Holocaust and the title phrase, “the last word,” are red herrings. Grunwald suffered nothing at the hands of the Nazis. Although he lost his job and fortune when he emigrated, he did so well in the United States that the play makes it difficult to feel sorry for him all these years later. Most of the confrontations do not end with one or the other winning an argument but with the more reasonable view winning out.

Michael V. Moore has designed an impressively realistic setting for the small shabby office somewhere in Greenwich Village, with its peeling walls, grimy window and overstuffed shelves. Set at an interesting angle, the audience is able to see two walls comprising a corner of the office. The equally realistic lighting which appears not to change during the course of the play is by Lucas Benjaminh Krech. Kirche Leigh Zeile’s costumes define the generation gap between the men.

Although Daniel J. Travanti makes a strong NY stage debut, Oren Safdie’s The Last Word… is a weak play that takes an interesting premise but offers little surprise. Often diverting, The Last Word… is ultimately a disappointment. The acting is fine but little of importance takes place.

The Last Word… (through March 11)

Theatre at St. Clements, 423 W. 46^th Street, in Manhattan