What: MTC presents the world premiere of Joshua Harmon's memory play about the complicated dynamics among himself, his mother, and his alcoholic grandmother.
And? Memory plays really can be a crap shoot, but this one is exquisite. It dives into the complexities not only of unreliable narrators, but the unreliability of memory itself, including the stories we tell ourselves to explain what's happened to us. It's bolstered by a profoundly powerful cast of only three (and in fact the night I went, we were treated to understudy Courtney Balan playing Jeanine Serralles's role of Ellen, and you'd never know she doesn't play it every night. The heartbreak and strength she brings to every moment, the lived-in relationships she has with characters both on- and off-stage, it's all there and rich and wonderful and awful. Similarly, Andrew Barth Feldman and Joanna Gleason as Joshua and Renee both just seem like people living and interacting on stage, not performing characters.
This is all the more remarkable for how presentational the frame of this production is. Pre-show, the furniture is draped in tarps with City Center stamped on them, as a crew member slowly prepares the space for performance. The furniture used does not match the descriptions given by the characters but seem instead to be leftovers from other productions, rehearsal hall stand-ins. And then Barth, clad in only his underwear, nods to the crew member to cue the light change that starts the play. As the piece progresses the three characters argue about which parts of the story need to be told, and when, and why. Three people, three truths. They talk to us, and to each other, about the story they're telling, even as we see the exposed bones of their storytelling tools, reminding us all this is still a play, by a playwright and about a playwright, with a family who is watching him write this new play in front of and about them. Perfectly directed by Trip Cullman, with a brilliant scenic design by John Lee Beatty (the transformation! I adored it): a gem of a production.
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| Jeanine Serralles, Andrew Barth Feldman, and Joanna Gleason as Ellen, Joshua, and Renee. Photo by Jeremy Daniel. |
3/13/25: Redwood
What: A new musical by Tina Landau and Kate Diaz about a woman who, unable to process the death of her son a year ago, abandons her wife in New York to drive to the redwoods of California.
And? This one is getting mixed responses, from what I can tell. It's fine, but the songs have too much same-ness to them, especially when sung by Idina Menzel: her belt is tremendous but it seems to be the only flavor she has. I wanted more variety of vocal texture to help track her emotional journey through the show. I will say, this was the finest work I've seen from Michael Park in the supporting role of Finn. And the Jewish representation was nice, too. The scenic/projection design by Jason Ardizzone-West and Hana S. Kim, respectively, while stunningly detailed from my mezzanine seat, has even more towering majesty from the angle in the orchestra.
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| Khaila Wilcoxon and Idina Menzel as Becca and Jesse. Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman. |
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