Category: Uncategorized

I’ve been to Leisure World in Maryland.  I know exactly the place where Phyllis will plop on her long rambling journey through life.  Paula Vogel’s surface level Mother Play gives us another miserable boozehound to watch devour the souls of her children.

Subtitled “a play in five evictions” provides all the clues one needs to know where this family drama is headed.  Martha (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and Carl (Jim Parsons) seem to be clever nerdy children when the play opens in 1964.  They seem loosely bonded to their mother’s unsteady orbit like buzzing electrons barely clinging to mom’s unstable isotope.  Books are an escape in between making mom cocktails.

Right up front we hear that there’s a season for packing and a season for unpacking.  This one act play will follow this family as they age from 1964 to the 21st century.  The young ones will face faint praise occasionally and brutal criticism more commonly.  In between there will be evictions as their situation worsens.  The divorce took its toll.  Mom is a self-absorbed caricature who, frankly, regrets having her children.

That material is catnip for me and I complete relate to this dysfunctional family scenario.  Why, then, did this work come across as so utterly devoid of emotion?  Jessica Lange is a recognizable mean old drunk if a tad glamorous.  This persona has been seen before so some new shadings or revelations might have made this play or this character say something new.  Instead we watch a rerun.  It’s not bad; just bland.

Both kids, as is telegraphed early on, turn out to be gay.  Mom had hoped for at least one normal child.  The tensions and separations occur as expected.  The 1980s also happen.  Mom isolates herself after years and years of abusing her people.  A lonely TV dinner is the heavy symbolism employed.  That silent scene is really long and boring.

Mr. Parsons is a witty bon vivant before his eventual explosion, extraction and attempts at self-preservation.  The heart of this play is the daughter played by Ms. Keenan-Bolger.  The role functions as the narrator of this oft-told tale in which, sadly, many of us can see parallels to our own lives.  Will there be resolution and forgiveness at the end?  Should there be?  Without any emotional core to grasp onto I simply didn’t care much.

Second Stage is presenting Mother Play at the Hayes Theater on Broadway through June 16, 2024.

www.2st.com

The rise of Vladimir Putin is the history being recounted in the always interesting yet slightly overbaked Patriots.  As an analysis on the corruptive forces that come with power, this intricately plotted exposé is a juicy political soap opera.  The production features technological flourishes which are both visually cool and effectively menacing.

Boris Berezovsky is the puppeteer in this potboiler.  The oligarchs operating in post-USSR are driving up their portfolios in a country where people are struggling economically.  Boris Yeltsin is a buffoonish clown (hilariously portrayed by Paul Kynman).  Greed is good seems to be the motivator.  The government needs to get out of the way.  A cynic might sense a wild swipe at capitalism and the West here as giant personal yachts are a connective desire no matter where the riches are hoarded.

Mr. Berezovsky finds a low ranking, politically unknown deputy and elevates his stature.  Putin is sure to do what he is told.  As we all know, however, that man has different ideas.  The evolution of this relationship and its inevitable power shift is the meat and potatoes of this play.

There is no attempt to gloss over the ruthlessness of businessmen in the wild west that is the 1990s era post-Communist oligarchy.  Nor is there any attempt to sanitize the violent tendencies of Vladimir Putin’s rule.  The battle for control is real and palpable tension is created.  The puppet master fails to maintain control of his so-called puppet.  Major events unfold and power is wrested.  Our current world is the end result.

There is a theory posited in Peter Morgan’s incisive yet sometime unfocused play.  Perhaps the “West” is also to blame for the rise of this textbook authoritarian.  Why was Russia told to get in line to join NATO behind far smaller countries?  We know how thin skinned wannabe dictators can be, just look at our American version(s).  Did the West miss an opportunity to send the world on a different, perhaps better, trajectory?

That tidbit is a little sidebar in this overall well-staged drama.  The play covers ground that many will know.  Details colorfully fill in the blanks.  Rupert Gold’s direction keeps the quickly moving action clear.  Minor set and lighting changes along with striking wall projections set the locations.  When Mr. Putin sits at his desk on a mostly empty stage there is a real sense of how significantly powerful he has become.

Will Keen’s portrayal of Putin is riveting.  From chip-on-the-shoulder bureaucrat to murderous thug, Mr. Keen’s sinister intensity makes one’s blood curl.  This is villain as phoenix rising from the chaos of an impotent government and its economic missteps.  The play gives enough background to make this ascension understandable.  Indirectly we wonder if this is the model being followed by others with similar needs for unchecked power in modern day monarchies.

Luke Thallon plays Roman Abramovich, a lesser oligarch who befriends Berezovski on his way up the food chain.  His ability to recognize and benefit from shifting winds provides another view into the political process.  Nothing is about morality despite the pretenses on display.  The driving force is strategic alignment with the eventual and unchallengeable winner.  Mr. Thallon is excellent in this role, perhaps realistically evolving more than any other character.

Michael Stuhlbarg is a huge presence in the leading role of Boris Berezovsky.  This larger than life person flails all over the place awash in their ego.  Success has created an insufferable maniac who is overly sure of his abilities and alliances.  I found Mr. Stuhlbarg’s performance to be a bit too broad if very entertaining.  His expansiveness colored the person with bold brushstrokes but sometimes the excesses seemed like acting with a capital A.

Patriots has a very large cast and there are meaningful smaller roles and scenes which paint the overall picture without unneeded exposition.  This play can be recommended for those who want to immerse themselves in a drama where moral degeneracy meets political power.  That we are still in this era while considering how we got here is the real gift of this play.

Patriots is running on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre through June 23, 2024.

www.patriotsbroadway.com