To My Girls

D+

Since I had not seen a play in almost four months, I really hoped that my return to theatergoing would be an auspicious one. Alas, it was not to be. This alleged comedy, which somehow made it to Second Stage's Tony Kiser Theater, is a dud. If JC Lee (Relevance) set out to write a "Boys in the Band" for the 2020's, he missed the mark. A group of five 30-something gay men who have not seen each other since before the pandemic have rented a home in Palm Springs for the weekend from Bernie (Bryan Batt; Forbidden Broadway), an older gay man who lives just down the street. Curtis (Jay Armstrong Johnson; On the Town) is an aging cute white boy. Castor (Maulik Pancholy; Grand Horizons) is his motormouthed South Asian friend whose love for Curtis has gone unrequited. Leo (Bretton Smith; Be More Chill) is a black friend from New York, a character who remains frustratingly underdeveloped. Jeff (Carman Lacivita; Marvin's Room) and Tom are a couple whose arrival keeps getting postponed. (Tom may be the smartest of the lot -- he never arrives.) Castor brings home Omar (Noah J. Ricketts; Frozen), a superbly built, exotic younger man he meets at a bar. Underlying tensions rise to the surface. Amidst the bitchy one-liners, a few of which are quite funny, we are subjected to monologues on generational differences, white privilege, the privilege of good looks, the corrosive influence of social media, and the effects of living through the age of MAGA. Judging from this group, despite all the changes of the last couple decades, including same-sex marriage and greater LGBT rights, the emotional life of American gay men has not improved. The final message seems to be that there's no problem a lively drag number can't fix. Under the direction of Stephen Brackett (Be More Chill), the action moves fitfully. The deliberately (I hope) hideous set by Arnulfo Maldonado (A Strange Loop) is a tribute to bad taste. The transition between scenes is marked by garish colored lights, courtesy of Jen Schriever (A Strange Loop). The costumes by Sarafina Bush (Pass Over) are appropriately over-the-top. Honesty compels me to report that much of the audience seemed to be having a very good time. To each his own. Running time: a long 90 minutes without intermission.

Relevance

C

I was surprised to learn that JC Lee (Luce), the author of this new play in previews at MCC Theater, is a man. I erroneously assumed that a play about the battle between two feminists of differing generation and race must have been written by a woman. Perhaps it needed a woman to more clearly articulate what is at stake in their struggle. In any case, it came across to me as a muddled look at important issues. From moment to moment, it is hard to tell whether Theresa (the always wonderful Jayne Houdyshell; A Doll's House Part 2, The Humans), an established author on women’s issues, is really interested in defending truth in academia or just fighting to keep rising star Msemaji (the superb Pascale Armand; Eclipsed) from taking over her spotlight. Although Theresa loathes social media where everyone, no matter how stupid, has equal voice, when she discovers unsubstantiated evidence online that Msemaji may have misrepresented her biographical details, she is tempted to weaponize the information. The arguments about gender and race put forth by Theresa and Msemaji seemed circular and repetitive. There are two supporting characters — Kelly (Molly Camp; The Heiress, Close Up Space), moderator of their debate at an academic conference, and David (Richard Masur; Democracy, Olive and the Bitter Herbs), Theresa’s literary agent. The role of Kelly is satirized too broadly and David’s character seemed mainly there as a plot contrivance. The lack of a sympathetic character was an obstacle for me. The scenic design by Clint Ramos (Once on This Island, The Village Bike), with its revolving set and sliding panels and the projection design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew were perfectly executed. The set for the hotel room has an LED cityscape outside the window that was so eye-catching that I became more interested in watching it transform than in paying attention to the actors. The costumes by Jacob A. Climer (Kid Victory) were spot-on. Director Liesl Tommy (Eclipsed) did her best with a shaky script. I wish that the script were up to the high level of the production. To me, this is one more case where a play was rushed into production before it was ready. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.

Luce **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)

The publicity for JC Lee’s new play at LCT3’s Claire Tow Theater says that it is about a high-school student, adopted from the Congo ten years before, who has a secret. Unfortunately, this sounds more intriguing than it turns out to be. What we get is a look at a teenager reacting to the heavy burden of high expectations, abetted by the unconditional love of an overeager mother. I reacted with ambivalence to all the characters -- Luce (Okieriete Onaodowan), his parents Amy (Marin Hinkle) and Peter (Neal Huff), Luce's teacher Harriet (Sharon Washington), who makes an unsettling discovery about him, and Stephanie (Olivia Oguma), a girl Luce dated. Along the way, the playwright pokes mild fun at educational, parental and social-network doublespeak. Luce expresses the opinion that cultural diversity is often misused as a way to avoid treating people as individuals. For me, the play’s focus got lost in the shuffle. Timothy R. Mackabee’s multipurpose set features a blackboard that doubles as a scrim through which we see part of the family home. Kaye Voyce’s costumes seemed appropriate. May Adrales’s direction, so effective for The Dance and the Railroad earlier this year, worked no magic here. It made for an interesting, but ultimately disappointing, evening. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes; no intermission.