How not to Rewrite Brecht

I'm going to keep this short because I don't like writing bad reviews.  But there are times when one must come out and say the painful truth: Clive, by Jonathan Marc Sherman is not worth seeing.  Unless you have a crush on Ethan Hawke or Zoe Kazan.  But even then, I really wouldn't.

This is how the play is described on the Acorn Theatre Website:

Inspired by Bertolt Brecht's inflammatory play Baal, Clive tracks a dissipated songwriter in 1990s New York City from the hedonistic heights of seduction and consumption into an ecstasy of self-destruction.

If that description leaves you thinking "WTF," the play itself will not enlighten you.  From the first moment, when Hawke sings a mumbling piano-bar version of "You Must Come in at the Door,"  the play is self-consciously lyrical, trite, and melodramatic. 

I'm not saying that every play has to have a traditional character arch or even a coherent story-line.  I'm fascinated by the avant-garde.... when it's good.  This was more like a play that sort of pretended to be cutting-edge, but in an emo sort of way.  Clive came across as an angsty rapist who its hard to feel sympathy for, because he really doesn't have a positive side.  The female characters are shallow and for some reason easily seduced by Hawke's winy pubescent take on rock-star.  I was in no way convinced that a 17 year old virgin would find this man fascinating enough to sleep with, or that she would kill herself after he rejected her.  Sorry.  Just no dice.

Also, I'm a bit confused on what the interpretation of Brecht is in this play.  In on very telling line, Clive "philosophizes" : "Art is meant to be felt, not understood."  Brecht is turning over in his grave.  This is exactly the opposite of what this politically-minded playwright stood for.  His plays often interrupt the flow of action right at critical moments so that characters might directly tell the audience what they ought to think or do as a result of what they see.  Brecht hoped to stop the action in order to limit the amount of emotional investment that audience took in the story, in favor of the message.  So, either Sherman didn't understand Brecht, or he thought he knew better than Brecht.  He didn't.