Here's 'Proof': Anne Heche stands strong on stage

NEW YORK — The potency of "Proof" rests mightily on the shoulders of the actress portraying Catherine, a young woman fearful of losing her sanity just like her father, a brilliant mathematics professor, did.

The role was first played by Mary-Louise Parker, who was followed by Jennifer Jason Leigh. And now Anne Heche has taken over, heading the third cast to appear in David Auburn's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre.

Heche, petite, blonde and in possession of a shy, sweet smile, more than holds her own, although she needs to slow down her rapid, machine-gun delivery during the play's emotionally high-pitched moments. Still, it's a touching performance, vulnerable yet funny, particularly when Catherine mocks the suspicions about her mental stability.

On the surface, the play deals with the discovery and authorship of a mysterious mathematical proof, but its real subject is the relationship between Catherine and the other people in her life, particularly her father. He is recently deceased but manages to make several appearances during the evening.

Len Cariou, Broadway's original "Sweeney Todd," plays him larger than life — hearty and expansive, yet able to capture the terror of a man who realizes that he's unraveling and can't do anything about it.

Neil Patrick Harris, sporting a reddish beard, may have shed his "Doogie Howser" identity forever with his portrayal of a math geek who falls for Catherine. He's personable and on the right side of scruffy as he pursues this fragile woman.

Kate Jennings Grant scores as the combative older sister who wants to take charge of Catherine's life, and the actress even manages to earn a bit of sympathy for the task at hand. Not easy, considering Grant is cast as the play's nominal villain, attempting to tame her sibling's flights of nonconformity.

Auburn's work holds up, too. Artfully constructed (it has the best first-act curtain line in years), the play, unobtrusively directed by Daniel Sullivan, succeeds in a large part because of his quartet of fully developed characters.

Another thing that has remained impressive since "Proof" started at Off-Broadway's Manhattan Theatre Club more than two years ago: designer John Lee Beatty's evocative back-porch setting of a South Side Chicago house. It's a homey, lived-in environment — and as important a part of the evening as the four fine actors who have given the production a new life.