"Daddy"

C-

Because I thoroughly enjoyed Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play at New York Theatre Workshop a few months ago, I have been looking forward to his new play for Vineyard Theatre and The New Group, now playing at Pershing Square Signature Center. While it shares with the earlier play a focus on interracial relationships, it unfortunately lacks that play’s wit and resonance. Subtitled “A Melodrama,” it revolves around Franklin (Ronald Peet; Spill, Cute Activist), a young LA-based black artist; Andre (Alan Cumming; Cabaret), the rich, white, middle-aged art collector with whom he begins a relationship; and Zora (Charlayne Woodard; Ain’t Misbehavin’, War), Franklin’s bible-quoting disapproving mother. We also meet Franklin’s vapid friends Bethany (Kahyun Kim; Love and Money) and Max (Tommy Dorfman; “13 Reasons Why”) as well as Alessia (Hari Nef, “Transparent”), the brassy owner of the gallery where Franklin is about to have his first show. There is also a three-woman gospel choir (Carrie Compere, Denise Manning, Onyie Nwachuckwu) whose presence adds a fanciful touch. For a good chunk of the first act, Franklin and Andre debate the contemporary art scene. While Bethany is inspired by Franklin’s good fortune in finding a sugar daddy, Max is jealous and resentful. Alessia is excited at the prospect of representing a hot new artist who will put her gallery on the map. Zora senses a threat and comes to town to see what’s up. She and Andre do not hit it off. We see the ups and downs of Franklin’s relationships at length — great length. Harris knows how to go for the theatrical: an onstage swimming pool, extensive male frontal nudity, simulated gay sex, larger than life dolls and that gospel choir. Alas, he is better at grabbing our attention than at maintaining it. My interest waned long before the third and final act drew to a close. Alan Cumming and Charlayne Woodard are always worth seeing onstage. The wonderful set design by Matt Saunders (Pipeline, Venus) featuring the pool of a Bel Air mansion is beautifully lit by Isabella Byrd (The Thanksgiving Play). The costumes by Montana Levi Blanco (Fabulation, In the Blood) add to the LA vibe. Director Danya Taymor (Pass Over, Familiar) keeps things moving smoothly except for an awkward scene break in the final act that many in the audience thought (or hoped) was the play’s ending. There are some worthwhile moments in the play, but they do not add up to a satisfying work. Running time: two hours 50 minutes including two intermissions. NOTE: Avoid rows A and B. People in row A will need the towels they have been provided to protect them from splashes from the pool. There is no rake between rows A and B so if you are sitting in row B behind a tall person, you are out of luck.

War **

After enjoying all three plays I have seen by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Appropriate, An Octoroon and Gloria), I arrived at LCT3’s Claire Tow Theater with high expectations. Unfortunately I was disappointed. Although I credit the playwright for his ambition and imagination, I did not feel that he had produced a coherent work. From reviews, I gather that the play has changed considerably since its 2014 Yale Rep premiere, Nevertheless it still did not seem like a finished product. The focus is divided among too many themes including sibling rivalry, family secrets, the scourge of dementia, dealing with parental illness, meeting parental expectations, racism in America and Germany from WWII to the present and man’s underlying simian nature. Particularly in the second act, there are too many long monologues that interrupt the flow. Roberta (the able Charlayne Woodard) is a well-to-do middle-aged African-American divorcee who has been rushed to a Washington hospital after suffering a stroke while visiting the ape house at the zoo. Her daughter Joanne (Rachel Nicks), a would-be children’s writer, is married to Malcolm (Reggie Gowland), a low key school teacher of no particular distinction, who is white. They have a young daughter. Joanne has only recently resumed a relationship with her mother after long years of estrangement. Her hostile brother Tate (Chris Myers), a political functionary working in Boston, flies in to be at his mother’s bedside and immediately lashes out at everyone including the kindly nurse (Lance Coadie Williams). We later learn that Tate and his male partner have recently split. Roberta was brought to the hospital by a mysterious woman who speaks almost no English; this is Elfriede (Michelle Shay), a German half-sister that Roberta has only recently discovered and, somewhat implausibly, never mentioned to anyone. Malcolm discovers a man staying at Roberta’s apartment, Elfriede’s angry son Tobias (Austin Durant), who is out to get a share of his late grandfather’s legacy. The nonstop shouting and bickering between Tate and everyone else grows quickly tiresome; Tate is so relentlessly nasty that I eventually cringed whenever he opened his mouth. The play’s most interesting feature is that for much of the first act we witness the comatose Roberta trying to regain her bearings with the assistance of a pack of gorillas led by Alpha (Williams again) whose language is projected as subtitles. It did not work for me. Simian imagery pervades the play from the monkey-sound taunts at Roberta’s father in Germany to the ape house at the zoo and the apes in her struggle for consciousness. Mimi Lien’s elegant scenic design is evocatively lit by Matt Frey. Montana Blanco’s costumes are apt. I can’t fault director Lileana Blain-Cruz for failing to bring all the disparate elements together better. While this evening was a disappointment, three hits out of four is still an enviable record for a playwright. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes including intermission.