Young Jean Lee's family drama with comic overtones was first presented at the Public Theater a few years ago. Its move to Second Stage’s Helen Hayes Theater, with a star-studded new cast, a new creative team and two new characters, marks the first time a female Asian-American playwright has been produced on Broadway. The performance gets off to a very bad start: the theater is filled with the sound of ear-splitting hip-hop accompnied by colored lights flashing on the tinsel curtain. Two non-binary “persons in charge” dressed in festive metallic costumes, trans woman Kate Bornstein and Native-American trans man Ty Defoe, step before the curtain to give a brief lecture on the need for greater acceptance of gender fluidity and diversity. They add that the music was deliberately intended to make most of the audience uncomfortable. The two appear briefly between scenes and at play’s end for no apparent reason. I do not think that their contribution to the play merits their inclusion. When the play proper begins, we are in the family room of a retired, widowed Midwestern engineer Ed (Stephen Payne; Of Mice and Men) whose 40-ish eldest son Matt (Paul Schneider; “Bright Star”) has moved back in with him. Matt’s two younger brothers. Jake (Josh Charles; The Antipodes, “The Good Wife”) and Drew (Armie Hammer; “Call Me by Your Name”), have come home for a family Christmas. Jake is a prosperous banker, recently divorced from his African-American wife. Drew is a successful author and college professor. Although Matt was the brightest and most idealistic of the three and had a Harvard education, he has never found his purpose in life, still has huge college debts, and is presently working in a temp job at a social service organization. The three brothers revert to adolescence with much competitive horseplay. They play a board game called “Privilege” that their late mother had adapted from a Monopoly set to teach them positive values. As they enjoy their Chinese takeout Christmas dinner, Ed relates that, unlike his sons, he always felt the course of his life was laid out for him with a clearly delineated path. Jake and Drew become upset when Matt suddenly begins weeping during dinner. While they deeply care for him, they feel that Matt’s lack of achievement is a betrayal of the advantages he has enjoyed. Their competing diagnoses of his problem and their misguided attempts to shape him up provide both humor and pathos. The play ends on an ambiguous note. The ensemble acting is terrific; while the actors look nothing alike, they show a real chemistry. Payne, a late replacement for Denis Arndt who in turn was a replacement for Tom Skerritt, looks uncannily like Skerritt. The scenic design by Todd Rosenthal (August: Osage County) is appropriately generic. Suttirat Larlarb’s (Of Mice and Men) costumes are spot-on, especially the Christmas pajamas. Faye Driscoll’s choreography and Thomas Schall’s fight direction add a lot to the production. Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County, This Is Our Youth) directs with assurance. The title promises too much; the characters are a very specific, atypical subset of straight white maledom. While the play offers much to enjoy, it does not go that deeply into the questions it raises and the ending provides no satisfactory resolution. Running time: 90 minutes; no intermission.
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