Tag Archives: broadway

Patty & Emily at It’s Only a Play

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When we go into a Terrence McNally play, we have certain expectations. Maybe that’s our fault, but with Mothers and Sons fresh in our minds and Ragtime forever playing in the back of our minds, it’s hard to reconcile the straight up comedy that we saw. We expect to be moved by a Terrence McNally play. We want to laugh, yes, but also cry. So, it was just a little strange to see this early work (updated for today), It’s Only a Play.

There was a lot to like about It’s Only a Play, and that was mostly the cast. Megan Mullally and Nathan Lane especially led this show. Megan’s odd southern accent and bright optimism in her producer character nailed that type of rich person who just wants to do something fun with their money. And Nathan Lane is Nathan Lane and is great in anything, even The Addams Family (joked about in this show). We were also “introduced” (as their posters say) to Micah Stock. He was fantastic as the coat check guy, who is allowed into this crazy world, and gives the best rendition of Defying Gravity on a Broadway stage this side of 49th street. The rest of the cast was great, though with so much going on, the outsized characters played by Stockard Channing, F. Murray Abraham, and Rupert Grint got to be a bit much. Matthew Broderick was apparently doing his Matthew Broderick thing and seeming to float his way through everything, even his long and strange monologues on “Great American Theatre.”

The play itself was wacky and fun, though sometimes seemed to try a little too hard. There’s a bit with the coats of guests coming in, and one of the running jokes is that casts of other Broadway shows are crashing the party. But their coats look like costumes from the shows and we all know you’re not allowed to leave the theatre in your costume! For a show that calls out real people and makes very real New York theatre references, bits like this for the sake of a laugh take a way from the reality. If you’re going to have Nathan Lane mention The Addams Family (and Nathan Lane), then you have to mention Curious Incident, not make up a show when talking about those imports from London. Shows about New York often have jokes that are for New Yorkers and jokes that are for tourists. It’s Only a Play had some fantastic jokes for New Yorkers, but too many terrible jokes for tourists. If there could be a better balance and a little more heart, it might feel like a Terrence McNally play.

Patty & Emily at The Country House

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Well, the title of the play says it all. It’s called The Country House. And the types of people who have country houses are typically rich families. So, here’s another play about a rich family all stuck in one place getting their shit out together. A slight twist on the formula, though borrowing from another formula: this family is all actors. So it’s a play about actors too! And frankly, it was all a lot of stuff we’ve seen before.

The cast was fine. Led by Blythe Danner, whose character makes some comment about how she wouldn’t be able to open a play on Broadway because she’s not a movie star. Cut to the marquee of the Friedman that is just a giant photo of movie star Blythe Danner. It’s supposed to be a self-aware joke, but it kind of fell flat since that tends to actually be the sad reality.Sarah Steele was really great, and funnily enough, hers was the only character who wasn’t in the “family business” of acting. Unfortunately, the play didn’t really make it easy to like any of the other characters, so the actors had to work extra hard because we think we were supposed to like them?

The one thing this play about a family didn’t have was a “big reveal.” Instead, the second act devolved into everyone discussing the unloved son and his issues with his mother. Again, how original. But not to be outdone, everyone got a chance to explain why their situation was worse. It was like that scene in Notting Hill where Julia Roberts tries to convince everyone that her life as a super rich, super famous actress is worse than the others (including a woman in a wheelchair). She doesn’t win the brownie, and neither did any of the characters in The Country House. It did have a lovely living room set, though. That’s about it.

Patty & Emily at Love Letters

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If you don’t know anything about Love Letters before you see it, don’t let the title fool you. This was not, in our opinion, a romantic show. It was a tragic one. If you find it romantic, we’d love to talk to you about why. It also wasn’t much of a show. While we may gravitate towards bigger, splashier shows (and musicals), we don’t need those elements to enjoy ourselves. But this was two actors sitting at a table on an otherwise empty stage, reading their lines. That’s not to say they weren’t performing. But the nature of the play has them literally reading the letters to each other. It was like seeing a staged reading, but this was no benefit. It was a full price, for profit Broadway show.

The story itself is not anything that hasn’t been told before. An upper class boy and girl (then man and woman) weave in and out of friendship and more as their lives pull them apart. But they can’t seem to stop writing letters to each other. Emily was pretty angry that it seemed as soon as Melissa said they were better off friends, her life went downhill. Patty just wasn’t very moved by the relationship between the two, many problems which seemed to arise by bad decisions by one or both of them. The redeeming part of the show was Mia Farrow, who had some really great moments, and gave humanity to what could be a thankless role. Brian Dennehy was commanding, but we weren’t able to sympathize with or like his character at all.
All this being said, there is a rotating amazing set of actors tackling this play. And since it’s really just the actors on stage alone, with no sets, costumes, sound, etc., you really are paying to see them. So if you want to see Brian Dennehy, Mia Farrow, Carol Burnett, Alan Alda, Candice Bergen, Stacy Keach, Diana Rigg, Martin Sheen, or Anjelica Huston, here’s your chance.
You can get tickets to Love Letters here.