Cost of Living

B+

After a successful run at the Williamstown Theatre Festival last summer, Martyna Majok’s (Ironbound) powerful four-character drama has arrived at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage I at City Center. The lead character, Eddie (Victor Williams, Luck of the Irish), begins the play with a well-written and well-performed 10-minute monologue that reveals that he is a long-distance truck driver who recently lost his wife. Next we meet Jess (Jolly Abraham, Coram Boy), an attractive woman in her twenties who is applying for a job as helper to John (Gregg Mozgala), a Harvard-educated grad student with cerebral palsy who is confined to a wheelchair. Jess works as a barmaid and needs the extra income. In a flashback, we meet Eddie’s wife Ani (Katy Sullivan) who lost her legs in an accident and is a bundle of rage. Two of the play’s most moving scenes take place in bathrooms where we see Jess shaving and showering John and Eddie giving a bath (and possibly more) to Ani. The play's strengths include  not portraying the disabled characters simplistically and in giving equal time to the needs of their caregivers. Each character is vividly sketched to the point that I wished I knew more about them. Until the final scene, each character interacts with only one other character. In that scene a new heartbreaking connection is made. I wish the author had omitted a brief manipulative reversal at the very end. The entire production is first rate: the acting, the revolving set by Wilson Chin (Aubergine, My Mañana Comes), the character-appropriate costumes by Jessica Pabst (The Ruins of Civilization) and the smooth direction by Jo Bonney (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark). I read that the author expanded this work from a two-character play and the opening monologue. The combination was not totally successful; some of the stitches show. Nevertheless, seeing it is a worthwhile, if painful, experience. Running time: one hour 45 minutes, no intermission.

The Cost of Living (Broadway)

B+

Although I was favorably impressed by Martyna Majok’s four-character drama when MTC presented it off-Broadway five years ago, I was surprised when it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2018. I suspect that its skillful treatment of marginal people in our society played a significant role in their choice. MTC has decided to revive it and move it to its Broadway venue, the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Two of the characters are marginalized by disabilities – John by cerebral palsy and Ani by the loss of her legs in an accident. Gregg Mozgala and Katy Sullivan powerfully recreate these roles. John’s situation is mitigated by having a Harvard education and sufficient economic resources to hire a private aide. The other two characters are marginalized by economic hardship. John's newest aide, Jess (Kara Young; Clyde’s), is an attractive young woman who, although she had attended Princeton, supports herself by working as a late-night barmaid. Ani’s husband Eddie (David Zayas; Jesus Hopped the A Train, “Dexter”), whom we meet in the extended monologue that opens the play, is an unemployed truck driver haunted by Ani’s recent death. The bulk of the play is a series of scenes of Eddie and Ani alternating with scenes of John and Jess. Two of the play’s most moving scenes take place in bathrooms where we see Jess shaving and showering John and Eddie giving a bath to Ani. The play's strengths include not portraying the disabled characters simplistically and in giving equal time to the needs of their caregivers. Each character is vividly sketched to the point that I wanted to know more about them. Until the final scene, each character interacts with only one other. In that scene a new heartbreaking connection is made. I wish the author had omitted a brief manipulative reversal at the very end. The entire production is first rate: the acting, the revolving set by Wilson Chin (Aubergine, My Mañana Comes), the character-appropriate costumes by Jessica Pabst (The Ruins of Civilization), the dramatic lighting by Jeff Croiter (Bandstand, Falsettos) and the smooth direction by Jo Bonney (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark). Seeing it is a worthwhile, if sometimes painful, experience. Running time: one hour 50 minutes, no intermission.

The Thanksgiving Play

C+

If the thought of a Saturday Night Live sketch that lasts almost an hour and a half appeals to you, you will enjoy this new play by Larissa FastHorse now at Playwrights Horizons. Logan (Jennnifer Bareilles; The Studio System), a neurotic drama teacher already in trouble with parents over her last production, The Iceman Cometh with 15-year old actors, has cobbled together enough grant money from organizations promoting noble causes to produce and direct a 45-minute play for an elementary school audience, celebrating Native American Heritage Month. The three actors she has recruited to “devise” the play are Jaxton (Greg Keller; The Amateurs, Belleville), her slacker street-performer boyfriend; Caden (Jeffrey Bean; Bells Are Ringing), a nerdy elementary teacher with a passion for historically accurate playwriting; and Alicia (Margo Seibert; Rocky), a sexy but not very bright Hollywood starlet, hired under the mistaken impression that she is Native American. Before the play opens and at a few points during, the actors perform delightfully awful Thanksgiving songs and short skits suggested as appropriate for young audiences. The bulk of the play portrays their first and possibly only rehearsal, a virtual playbook of political correctness among the “woke” that leads to increasingly absurd situations as they tie themselves in knots trying to avoid offending anyone. The characters may be stereotypes but they are marvelously realized by the four actors. The satire is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but there are some hilarious moments. A few theatrical “in” jokes are very funny. What disappointed me was that I thought a Native American playwright would offer some original insights on our November holiday that I didn’t find. I felt that the play might just as easily have been the work of a team of privileged white SNL writers. Even though I am a fan of broad satire, the play ran too long to sustain my interest. The set by Wilson Chin (Cost of Living, The Jammer) accurately recreates a high school drama classroom. The costumes by Tilly Grimes (The Government Inspector) are spot-on. Despite the best efforts of director Moritz von Stuelpnagel (Hand to God, Bernhardt/Hamlet), the play loses energy before it’s over. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.

A Walk with Mr. Heifetz

C-

James Inverne’s impressive resume includes work as arts writer and commentator for the Daily Mail, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and the Financial Times, editor of Gramophone and founder of magazines for the Sundance Institute and other arts institutions. He marks his playwriting debut with this well-intentioned but dramatically inert new play for Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre. In Act I, set in Palestine in 1926 under the British mandate, we meet Yehuda Sharett (Yuval Boim), kibbutz choir director, composer and amateur violinist, who has just attended a concert by Jascha Heifetz (Adam Green). He takes Heifetz for a walk in the hills during which he rebukes the famous violinist for the egotism of his career but also implores him for advice on how to become a better composer. Heifetz suggests he go to Berlin to study. In Act II, set in 1945, Yehuda is visited by his brother Moshe (Erik Lochtefeld; Napoli, Brooklyn), who went on to become foreign minister and then prime minister of Israel. Yehuda has stopped writing music and has become a recluse after his wife and sister are killed in an accident. Moshe attempts to lure him back into the world by persuading him how important music is to the soul of a nation. It’s all very high-minded, but, infortunately, not very dramatic. The different accents of the two brothers interject a discordant note. Boim’s Israeli accent is so thick that I could not distinguish between “walk” and “work.” In addition to the three actors, there is a violinist (Mariella Haubs) whose occasional short passages were more of a distraction than an enhancement. The set by Wilson Chin (Cost of Living, My Mañana Comes) converts from a rocky, hilly scene in the first act to a gloomy apartment in the second. The period costumes by Jen Caprio seemed appropriate to their characters. Andrew Leynse’s direction was unfussy. Earlier this season, Primary Stages presented another play (The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord) that was more polemical than dramatic. While this play was a big improvement over the earlier one, I think it’s time to seek a new direction. Running time: 90 minutes including intermission.

The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord

C-

Primary Stages’ season opener at the Cherry Lane Theatre is this high-concept comedy of ideas by Scott Carter. The playwright’s main credentials are that he was a stand-up comedian and later a writer/executive producer for Bill Maher’s television show. The play’s concept sounds promising: Imagine Thomas Jefferson (Michael Laurence; Appropriate). Charles Dickens (Duane Boutté; Parade) and Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Thom Sesma; Pacific Overtures) locked together in a room for reasons they do not understand. They appear as they looked at the height of their careers, rather than at the time of death. When they realize that each wrote his own version of the gospel, they think their purpose must be to combine their efforts into a joint work. When that fails, each tries to persuade the other two of the superiority of his own version. Finally, it occurs to them that maybe their real task is to examine their lives and face up to the gaps between their writings and their behavior. It was only at that point, about an hour in, that the play came to life for me and I stopped struggling to stay awake. During their recriminations, poor Jefferson comes in for the roughest treatment. Neither the humor nor the lofty discourse engaged me much. Maybe I nodded off for a crucial moment that would have made all the difference. I doubt it. The production is on the lavish side: a gilded proscenium arch decorated with books frames a red velvet curtain which lifts to reveal Wilson Chin’s (Aubergine) minimalist set of a bare room with a metal table and two chairs. Words are occasionally projected on the back wall. The period costumes by David Hyman (The Treasurer) are excellent. Laurence has a quiet dignity as Jefferson, but Boutté’s Dickens is too much a caricature and Sesma’s Tolstoy barely registers. That this play attracted a director the caliber of Kimberly Senior (Disgraced, The Who and the What) makes me wonder what she saw in it that I missed. Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission. 

By the Water ***

This new family drama with comic overtones, the first product of a collaboration between Manhattan Theater Club and Ars Nova at The Studio at Stage II at City Center, bodes well for their cooperative effort. Playwright Sharon Rothstein depicts the devastating effects of Superstorm Sandy on the Murphy family of Staten Island. Not only has the storm extensively damaged their home and neighborhood, it has uncovered long-standing family tensions and secrets. Marty (Vyto Ruginis) and Mary Murphy (the wonderful Deirdre O’Connell) seem determined to repair and remain in their home. The Murphys’ older son Sal (Quincy Dunn-Baker), who has married and made a successful life for himself in Manhattan, makes a rare appearance to persuade his parents to sell. Their younger son Brian (Tom Pelphrey), a recovering addict recently out of jail, also turns up, but he supports his father’s wishes. There is bad blood between the brothers. We learn that Marty is no saint either — he barely escaped jail for tax evasion and lost the family business. Their long-time neighbors Philip (Ethan Phillips) and Andrea Carter (Charlotte Maier), whose home has been destroyed, want to take a government buyout and relocate. Marty’s campaign to prevent the buyout plan from reaching the necessary 80% consensus puts a strain on their friendship. When it turns out that Marty’s determination to stay put has reasons that are far from noble, even Mary’s relationship with him is shaken. If all that were not enough plot, there is a rekindling of feelings between Brian and the Carters’ divorced daughter Emily (Cassie Beck). What holds it all together is Rothstein’s skill in creating vivid, believable, complex characters and convincing dialogue. Wilson Chin’s set makes the devastation very real and Jessica Pabst’s costumes reflect their characters well. Director Hal Brooks elicits fine work from a strong cast. Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission. 

My Mañana Comes ****

I had not previously heard of The Playwrights Realm, a theater company “dedicated to serving early-career playwrights” that offers a year-long residency culminating in a full-scale off-Broadway production. On the basis of Elizabeth Irwin’s new play at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater until September 20, I would say they have a sharp eye for talent and a commitment to high production values. Irwin’s workplace drama with comedic overtones presents a vivid slice-of-life about four busboys in an Upper East Side restaurant. Peter (Jason Bowen), a black man with a child, is the senior among them and the only one who takes professional pride in his work. Two busboys are undocumented Mexican immigrants; frugal Jorge (José Joaquin Pérez) left wife and children behind almost four years ago to earn enough money to build them a new home. Spendthrift Pepe (Reza Salazar) is a recently arrived young man who dreams of saving enough to bring his younger brother to New York. The junior busboy Whalid (Brian Quijada), a second-generation Hispanic who lives with his parents and has vague dreams of getting a civil service job, teases Jorge and Pepe mercilessly. We follow the four through their daily rounds at work and learn what pressures in the outside world make their lives difficult. A crisis at work puts each of them to a test of solidarity. I do not generally like the use of monologues, but Irwin has skillfully incorporated them here. The actors are all very good, particularly Bowen and Pérez. Chay Yew’s direction is seamless. The set design by Wilson Chin is worth arriving a few minutes early just to admire; he captures the details of a working kitchen right down to the scrapes on the walls. Moria Sine Clinton’s costumes are excellent. The play illustrates the personal dimension of large social issues, including immigration policy, race relations, exploitation of the vulnerable, the corrosive effects of poverty. Irwin shows a lot of talent and I look forward to seeing what she does next. Running time 1 hour 40 minutes; no intermission.

NOTE: The Peter Jay Sharp Theater (the smaller upstairs theater at Playwrights Horizons) has less than ideal seating. The seats are directly behind each other rather than staggered and have no padding on the seat backs. If you have back problems, bring a cushion.

QUESTION: Why would a character who is identified as Hispanic be named Whalid, a name I have always thought was of Arabic origin? Ideas, anyone?

Too Much, Too Much, Too Many ***

Meghan Kennedy's new work is the latest offering at Roundabout Underground's Black Box Theatre, their "launching pad for emergent playwrights." In 22 short, concentrated scenes, Kennedy depicts some of the ways people deal with grief and loss. The four characters are Emma (Rebecca Henderson), a depressed 39-year-old single woman who has lost her father James (James Rebhorn) to Alzheimer's, her grieving mother Rose (Phyllis Somerville) who has locked herself in her room for almost a year, and the enigmatic Pastor Hidge (Luke Kirby) who has been sent by the local church to offer comfort. The actors rise to the challenge of performing with people they cannot see because of an intervening door. It's a pleasure to see two old pros like Rebhorn (Homeland) and Somerville (The Big C) onstage. Rebhorn's portrayal of the descent into dementia is heartbreaking. The younger actors are also fine and the production is first-rate. The set by Wilson Chin looks wonderfully lived in. Jess Goldstein's costumes, Zach Blane's lighting design and the sound design by Broken Chord all greatly enhance the production. Sheryl Kaller's direction is sure and steady. Despite some misgivings about the script, I found the play worthwhile. I do wish they had found a more appealing title though! Running time: 70 minutes, no intermission.