-


The Play: Little Bear Ridge Road; a stymied gay writer returning to his rural Idaho hometown after his opioid-addicted father’s death finds himself sheltering during the Covid quarantine with his estranged and reclusive aunt in this quietly affecting meditation on loneliness, the obligations of family, the privileges of class and the power of forgiveness

Written by: Samuel D. Hunter        Directed by: Joe Mantello

One good thing: Hunter tailored the role of the flinty aunt for Laurie Metcalf and she’s unsurprisingly terrific in it but equally superb is Micah Stock, whose performance as the emotionally-stunted nephew makes good on the promise that won him a newcomer's Theater World Award in 2015 for standing out in a cast that included such scene stealers as F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally

One not-so-great thing: I've spent days thinking about what to say here but I’m pretty much all in on this one, I was even a fan of the ugly couch that constitutes Scott Pask's entire set.

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Call Me Izzy @ Studio 54

-
Image
The Play: Call Me Izzy; a one-person show about a rural woman who tries to use her gift as a naturally-talented poet to escape her life as a longtime battered wife Written by: Jamie Wax        Directed by: Sarna Lapine One good thing: Jean Smart, who’s won all kinds of awards for her TV work especially in the HBO series “Hacks”, makes an equally praiseworthy return to the New York stage for the first time in 25 years One not-so-great thing:  The play seems somewhat gratuitous since it offers no fresh insights about domestic abuse and its ending is particularly unsatisfying    
Read more

The Imaginary Invalid, a Red Bull Theater production at New World Stages

-
Image
The Play : The Imaginary Invalid, a trimmed-down version of the 17th century French farce about a hypochondriac whose obsession with his health blinds him to all the machinations that are going on around him Written by: Moliere      Adapted by: Jeffrey Hatcher        Directed by: Jesse Berger One good thing: The cast includes some of the funniest theatrical clowns in the business, including Mark-Linn Baker, Arnie Burton and Stephanie Styles One not-so-great thing: The pacing is sluggish, which can be the kiss of death for a farce      
Read more

The Gospel at Colonus @ The Amph on Little Island

-
Image
The Show: The Gospel at Colonus; the story of the death and redemption of Oedipus that Sophocles dramatized in the second of his plays about the tragic mythological king is filtered through the spirituals and other rituals of a Black Pentecostal church service Conceived and adapted by: Lee Breuer        Music by:   Bob Telson      Lyrics by:   Lee Breuer and Bob Telson                Directed by: Shayok Misha Chowdhury One good thing: The music is gloriously performed and the setting looking out over the river from Little Island on a warm summer night is almost as awe-inspiring One not-so-great thing:   Following the narrative can be tricky because three different actors play Oedipus; on the other hand, they—Stephanie Berry, Davón Tines and Frank 
Senior—are all so fantastic that it barely matters    
Read more