It's a cloudy forecast in 'A Steady Rain'

"A Steady Rain," the grim cop drama and 2009 Broadway superstar turn for Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, makes its Long Island premiere with somewhat dimmer star power, directed by Arena Players' Frederic De Feis.

Not that John Leone as Denny, the cop who cuts deals with criminals, and Christopher Tyrkko as Joey, his recovering alcoholic partner, are chopped liver. But the dark world they inhabit, which eventually engulfs one of them, is unrelentingly depressing. Yes, there's a hint of tenderness when Denny speaks of his unseen kids, or when Joey commiserates with Denny's abused (also unseen) wife. Leone animates Denny's soliloquies with a chip-on-his-shoulder sneer; Tyrkko's Joey is a sympathetic punching bag. But each is such a loser. In the absence of others we might feel for, who cares?

WHAT Keith Huff's "A Steady Rain"

WHEN | WHERE 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Arena Players, Vanderbilt Museum Carriage House, 180 Little Neck Rd., Centerport

INFO $20-$25; arenaplayers.org, 516-293-0674