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 ...