Jamie Wax's new play treads all-too-familiar territory, but Emmy winner Smart ("Hacks") elevates the material and makes Izzy’s story feel fresh.

The “Hacks” star returns to Broadway after 25 years in a triumph for her, if not for the old-fashioned, flowery play about spouse abuse.

Mumbling incoherently in a gloomy old bathrobe with long, fuzzy, uncombed hair and clumsily directed by Sarna Lapine, Jean Smart worked hard to create a pathetic character, but I was able to decipher no more than 20 percent of the talk in Call Me Izzy. All I wanted to do was call it gone.