Lucas Hnath puts a disclaimer at the top of his play “Hillary and Clinton,” which opened Thursday at the Golden Theatre after its 2016 world premiere in Chicago. Laurie Metcalfe says that the story we’re about to see takes place on an alternate Earth; since the universe is infinite, there are lots of Earths. Some are a little different, some are very different and some are just like the one we call home.
Before Metcalf jumps into the role of a political candidate named Hillary, Hnath’s words about alternate worlds come off as a gimmick — or an excuse for him to riff wildly on the real Hillary and Bill Clinton.