I admit to not being a theater buff, but I went to see "Proof" at the Shubert Theatre with my dad when I got a couple of freebie tickets, and I thought it stunk. In fact, we both did. Perhaps my expectations were too high, based on its being a Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award-winning drama, but it struck me as a shallow, unconvincing and uninvolving examination of the relationship between genius and mental illness.

I have not seen "A Beautiful Mind," to which it is no doubt endlessly compared, but I imagine that the film — despite leaving out the most interesting parts of John Nash’s life story — could not have been worse. While I did chuckle a few times at the alleged comedy, most of the laugh lines wouldn’t have made into the average sitcom.

So this is the best the theater world has to offer? I sure hope not. I’ll stick to Mamet and Stoppard — and the movies.