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.

A Strange Loop

A-

Playwrights Horizons goes a long way toward redeeming a lackluster season with this final offering, a co-production with Page 73 Productions, an organization devoted to giving New York professional debuts to talented early-career playwrights. Michael R. Jackson (White Girl in Danger), who clearly falls into that category, has written one of the most original, unruly, affecting, outrageously theatrical shows of the season. Jackson’s protagonist is Usher, a 25-year-old overweight, gay, black man who supports his dream to write musicals by ushering at The Lion King. The musical he is struggling to write is about a 25-year-old overweight, gay, black man who supports his dream to write musicals by ushering at The Lion King. Thus the loop of the title. We witness the many roots of Usher’s self-loathing and the desperation to which it can lead. In one ironic twist, the negative prejudice he encounters when seeking sex is mainly from blacks, while he is an object of desire from whites who crave interracial sex. All Usher’s mother wants from him is to write a gospel play in the style of Tyler Perry, whose work he loathes. There is not really a linear plot; instead we get a stylized, occasionally metatheatrical, examination of Usher’s psyche. The show is often hysterically funny, but Usher’s pain cannot be suppressed and breaks through powerfully from time to time. Larry Owens (Gigantic) is no less than magnificent as Usher; he gives his all and then some. The six marvelous actors — Antwayn Hopper (The Loophole), James Jackson, Jr. (The Black-Ups), L. Morgan Lee (Jesus Christ Superstar), John-Michael Lyles (This Ain’t No Disco), John-Andrew Morrison (The Missionary) and Jason Veasey (The Lion King)—who share the stage with him are only identified as Thoughts 1 through 6 so I unfortunately can’t single out any of them for special praise. The music is lively; the lyrics are so dense that it is occasionally difficult to catch everything at first hearing. The production pulls out all the stops. Arnulfo Maldonado’s (I Was Most Alive with You) initially unimpressive set undergoes a series of amazing transformations. Montana Levi Bianco’s (Ain’t No Mo) multiple costumes for each actor are a treat to see. Raja Feather Kelly’s choreography (Funnyhouse of a Negro, Fairview) adds a lot to the production. Director Stephen Brackett (Be More Chill, Buyer & Cellar) skillfully holds everything together. This was certainly one of the most exciting and original shows I saw this year. Would that Playwrights Horizons achieved these heights more often! Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission. NOTE: If you are uncomfortable with rough language and simulated sodomy, this is most definitely not the show for you.

Playwrights Horizons has provided a trailer on their website. Here’s a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgHEnOb9B9Q

Summer Shorts: Series A ***

59E59 Theater is once again hosting the Summer Shorts Festival of New American Short Plays. Series A features works by Neil LaBute (most recently The Way We Get By), Vickie Ramirez and Matthew Lopez (The Whipping Man). 

LaBute’s 10K  presents two joggers, a woman (Clea Alsip) and a man (J.J. Kandel), who are certainly among the fittest actors on a New York stage. Although they are jogging for almost the entire play, their bodies and their voices show no signs of fatigue. They meet on their daily run in a nature reserve and carry on a conversation that gradually grows more personal and leads them to reveal their fantasies. It’s a minor work that is superbly realized. The playwright directed.

Glenburn 12 WP by Ramirez is the evening’s weak point. Troy (Tre Davis), a young black man who has been at an anti-racism protest at Grand Central Terminal, enters a nearby Irish pub to have a beer. The bartender is unaccountably absent. He is soon joined by Roberta (Tanis Parenteau), a woman in her 30s who is a regular at the bar and who turns out to be part Native American. She tries to persuade him to have a drink, but he is reluctant to without the bartender there. She provokes him into a conversation and offers to pay for his drinks. When she goes down to the cellar allegedly to see if the bartender is there, she returns with a bottle of the very expensive Scotch for which the play is named. After a couple of drinks, she reveals a dark secret, which seemed completely implausible. The actors did their best with poorly written characters. Mel Haney directed.

The Sentinels by Lopez introduces us to three 9/11 widows whose husbands worked for the same firm and who meet at a coffee shop near ground zero every year. Alice’s (Meg Gibson) husband was the company’s founder. The acerbic Christa (Kellie Overbey) was married to an important executive there. Kelly’s (Michelle Beck) husband was a recent hire. Zuzanna Szadkowski is the waitress. The gimmick is that the story is told backwards starting in 2011 and proceeding in short scenes back to 2000. The concept is better than the execution. The short scenes don’t really build in intensity. The cast was good. The flatness seemed more in the writing than in Stephen Brackett’s direction.

Rebecca Lord-Surratt’s set design transformed nicely between locations. Dede Ayite’s costumes were apt. The evening was pleasant but not memorable. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes, no intermission.

Buyer and Cellar ****

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
Jonathan Tolins' one-person comedy in previews at the Rattlestick Theater is a guilty pleasure. It's sheer fluff, but what delightful fluff. The premise is so wacky that I just gave into it to see where it would lead: a certain superstar, whose first name is Barbra, has built an underground mall beneath the barn on her Malibu estate to house the many possessions she has acquired over the years. She likes to visit her stash, but doesn't like to be alone, so she hires an unemployed actor, Alex More, to impersonate a salesperson and be on call for her visits. Luckily for us, Alex is played by the talented Michael Urie, who also portrays Alex's cynical screenwriter boyfriend Barry, Barbra, her personal assistant Sharon and hubby James Brolin. A series of scenes in which Barbra haggles to buy a doll (which she of course already owns) is hilarious. Will Alex ever be invited upstairs to see her home? Will Barbra ever play Mama Rose on film? If you are a fan of divas in general or Barbra in particular, or a Urie fan or a lover of musicals or an unemployed actor or all of the above, you will have a good time. Andrew Boyce's simple set is greatly enhanced by Eric Southern's excellent lighting and Alex Koch's projections. Director Stephen Brackett might want to consider trimming a few minutes. Running time: 90 minutes without intermission.