Ben
Brantley

December 17, 2015

Ah, remember the women of “Diner,” Barry Levinson’s priceless 1982 movie about being young and lost in Baltimore? O.K., you can be forgiven for thinking that I have asked the wrong question. After all, Mr. Levinson’s breakout film, set in the late 1950s, focused on a core of maturity-resistant men, embodied by a perfectly synced ensemble that included stars-to-be like Mickey Rourke, Paul Reiser, Steve Guttenberg and Kevin Bacon. The women in their lives may have been at the front of their minds — principally as objects to be bedded or (more alarmingly) wedded. But, aside from a neglected young wife played by Ellen Barkin, the female characters tended to hover in silent reproach on the movie’s periphery. Well, 33 years later, these women have found their voices, and they have a lot to say. Or rather, sing. With assistance from the chart-topping recording artist Sheryl Crow and the A-list Broadway director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall, Mr. Levinson has reimagined “Diner” as a musical, which opened last week at the Delaware Theater Company here, in what feels like an act of earnest atonement for a generation of male-chauvinist behavior.