Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven

B+

Stephen Adly Guirgis’s ambitious new play about the residents and staff of an Upper West Side halfway house for women is now at Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater in a coproduction with LAByrinth Theater Company. With 18 actors and a goat playing 21 roles and a running time of almost three hours, it operates on a large scale. The residents include Happy Meal Sonia (Wilemina Olivia-Garcia), a mentally unstable woman overdependent on her daughter Taina (Viviana Valeria); Wanda Wheels (Patrice Johnson Chevannes), a depressed wheelchair-bound elderly former nightclub entertainer who once dated Noam Chomsky and who takes a motherly interest in Queen Sugar (Benja Kay Thomas), who is involved in an Amway-like scam; Betty Woods (Kristina Poe), a morbidly obese woman who doesn’t bathe; Bella (Andrea Syglowski), a young recovering addict with a baby; Sarge (Liza Colon-Zayas), the female vet with PTSD with whom Bella is involved; Venus Ramirez (Esteban Andres Cruz), a trans woman resented by the other residents but lusted after by custodian Joey Fresco (Victor Almanzar); Munchies (Pernell Walker), a buxom beauty having a fling with Mr. Mobo (Neil Tyrone Pritchard), the Nigerian immigrant who is second in command to devoted director Miss Rivera (Elizabeth Rodriguez). There is also the addled Rockaway Rosie (Elizabeth Canavan) and two youngsters: Mateo (Sean Carvajal), whose mother is dying from a kidney disease and Little Melba Diaz (Kara Young), who has a knack for rap. Jennifer (Molly Collier) is a freshly minted Columbia MSW overwhelmed by her first job but eager to do good. Father Miguel (David Anzuelo) is the kindly but forceful local priest. Nicky (Greg Keller) is an abusive husband who wants to see his wife. Late in the play we meet Detective Sullivan (Keller again) and Councilwoman Golden (Syglowski again) who are investigating the disappearance of Mr. Skittles, one of the goats brought to Riverside Park to eat weeds who have become celebrities with their own FaceBook pages. Almost every character gets a moment to shine, often with a monologue that raises urban patois practically to the level of operatic aria. Some are hilarious, others are heartbreaking. The stories of the characters are linked loosely by a narrative that involves the disappearance of a resident, which gets less attention from the police than the disappearance of the goat. The set by Narelle Sissons (All My Sons) features a cross section of the house with a dilapidated meeting room. A couple of scenes take place outside the home on either side of the stage at audience level. (I would suggest not getting seats in rows B through D to avoid having sightline problems for these scenes.) The costumes by Alexis Forte (Our Lady of 121st Street) suit their characters. The direction by LAByrinth artistic director John Ortiz (Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train) is fluid. I do think that Guirgis might have trimmed a character or two and come up with a stronger ending. While I did not feel the play quite reached the level of some of his other plays (The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Between Riverside and Crazy), I did find it worthwhile. One of the pleasures was to reconnect with several marvelous actors who appeared in other Guirgis plays. If you don’t know his work, be prepared for rough language and sexual situations. Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes.

Downstairs

C-

First the good news: this latest offering by Primary Stages offers the opportunity to see Tyne Daly (Gypsy, Master Class, “Cagney and Lacey”) and her brother Tim (Coastal Disturbances, “Madame Secretary”) together onstage for the first time in New York, both playing roles that cast them against type. Tim, usually a suave charmer, plays Teddy, a middle-aged man with a fragile grip on reality that may be the result of paranoia. Tyne, usually the smart, strong woman, plays Irene, a timid, depressive housewife who lives in fear of her horrible husband Gerry (John Procaccino; Our Mother’s Brief Affair, Nikolai and the Others). The bad news is that the play is by Theresa Rebeck (Bernhardt/Hamlet, Poor Behavior), a playwright whose ability to get her work produced no matter how many disappointing plays she writes never fails to amaze me. Add another disappointment to the list. Despite a interesting premise — Teddy is temporarily occupying a beat-up couch in Irene’s basement against the wishes of her tyrannical husband — the play mostly spins its wheels and dissipates what little tension it builds up well before it finally ends. If there was any point to it, it was lost on me. Despite fine performances by all three actors, I found myself losing interest and patience early on. The slack direction by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Thirst, Zürich) didn't help either. I did like Narelle Sissons’s (All My Sons, In the Blood) meticulously detailed, dingy, unfinished basement set and Sarah Laux's (The Band's Visit, The Humans) evocative costumes. I admire the Dalys for trying something different, but wish it had turned out better. Running time: one hour 45 minutes, no intermission.