The Play's the Thing

I saw Tracy Letts' August: Osage County towards the end of its run, and I sat at the Music Box theater completely engrossed, hanging on every word. It was truly edge of your seat theater, and it's still one of my favorite theater-going experiences of all time. And then Letts played George in the magnificent revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , another one of my favorite theater-going experiences, with a performance that remains one of my all-time favorites. After reading/seeing some of his other plays, seeing him act on screen, I was pretty much convinced that the man is a god. So imagine my excitement when Second Stage announced they were transferring Mary Page Marlowe from Steppenwolf. Sometimes your heroes let you down. Look, Letts hasn't let me down completely. The writing of Mary Page Marlowe is still incredibly strong, and it was refreshing to see a play that wasn't trying to be the most topical and timely play in all the land. It's just ...

As you have read, lately I've been grappling with why plays are revived and when. So going into Lobby Hero , the Kenneth Lonergan play receiving a revival at the brand new Helen Hayes Theater (now owned and operated by Second Stage), I couldn't help but ask, "why?" Why revive this now, seventeen years after it ran at Playwrights Horizons? Why did Second Stage make it its maiden voyage on Broadway? Why did it attract stars like Michael Cera and Chris Evans? I'm still not really sure of the answers to those questions. Theater is a living, breathing organism. And the beauty of it is that plays and musicals can be revived over and over again, hopefully with new insight. No two productions will (or should) be alike. So I guess judging by that there's always a reason to revive a play, right? I honestly could've lived forever without seeing Lobby Hero on Broadway, or stage, ever again. It's a fine play that doesn't quite succeed as either a slice of l...

Sigh. Sigh. Lots and lots of sigh. I really don't know what Second Stage was thinking with Cardinal. Okay, okay, that sounds a little too harsh but honestly, this play is all over the place thematically, has no tension or rising action, and is so dramatically inert. Second Stage is billing this as a world premiere, and quite frankly, it's clear this needed a few more workshops and readings before it was fit for public consumption. The plot is one that we've seen variations of dozens of times: a small town's (somewhere in upstate New York; Pierce never names it) economies is struggling so the mayor, Jeffrey, must come up with an idea to drum up revenue. His female advisor, Lydia, (at least I think that's what she's meant to be; again, Pierce never clarifies) who also grew up in the town decides it would be a great idea to literally paint the town red to attract tourists. (Why she has so much power to persuade and convince not only the mayor but the rest...