Appreciation: 'Opus'

For the second outing of my Theatre Appreciation class, we went to see Michael Hollinger's play Opus performed by Portland Center Stage. I've been to a few PCS performances, but not many of their contemporary productions -- I've seen them perform King Lear, The Importance of Being Earnest, the obligatory production of A Christmas Carol; but the only modern/contemporary production I've seen from them was The Pillowman, which was merely OK. And therein lies my problem with most contemporary theater productions -- I find them only to OK, usually I find them to be incredibly pedestrian and predictable.
Case in point, Hollinger's Opus. While it wasn't a bad play (it was competent enough and the actor's all had their chops), it certainly wasn't an interesting piece, nor was it as provocative as it thought itself to be.
It was very much a "white people's problems" story ("Do I join the nice small quartet or do I take the audition for the Pittsburgh symphony?"; "If we perform at the White House, do we really have to play 'Hail to the Chief?'"; "We're gay professional orchestral musicians, yet we're still in the closet!"), like one long, highly produced, live episode of Friends. And had I come in with a check list of everything I'd expect to be in a modern/contemporary play, about modern/contemporary "problems," I would have checked off every single plot point on that list.
I find myself having the same issues with most of other contemporary forms of art, but that's another post for another day.