The Potluck, a Soho Rep and Intar production @ Playwrights Horizons

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The Play: The Potluck; a meta-musical fantasia—part docudrama, part meditation on generational trauma and part political call to arms—about the aftermath of the 1979 Greensboro Massacre in which five labor organizers were gunned down by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party 

Written by: César Alvarez        Directed by: Sarah Benson

One good thing: Similarities between the political situation in 1979 and current events when social justice activists like Renee Good and Alex Pretti have been killed are undeniable and are most dramatically brought home in the 7-minute excerpt from a documentary that Alvarez’s mom made after the murder of her friends 

One not-so-great thing: But the narrative here meanders, too often veering into the self-indulgent (random ruminations on queerness) and the cutesy (a number with dancing mops) and, with the exception of one or two ballads, the score creates more of a vague vibe than a clarifying through-line for the story 

 


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