It’s Only A Play

On Broadway-at the Schoenfeld Theatre



This is a show that everybody is going to want to see.  When you put the Ex-Producers Nathan
Lane
and Matthew Broderick on the stage people will come.  And come they did in hoards.  A packed house bustling with excitement, I was cozy in my seat and ready to be thoroughly entertained.

 

It is present day. I like that.  Picture the opening night party attended by everybody who is anyone that takes place at the Producer’s home where a select few gather in the Master Bedroom Suite awaiting the reviews of their play The Golden Egg.  I don’t think I’m letting any cat out of the bag when I tell you this play (not this play, but the play in the play) was a big flop, because if it wasn’t it would not be funny at all. 

 

 

Nathan Lane can’t do anything wrong in my lines…. Oops… a Freudian slip indeed.  I totally wrote that without even thinking, and I’m just going to leave it, because it’s very punny.  His delivery is priceless, and I had no doubt that he would steal the show.  In this one, they really take pot shots at a lot of people on Broadway, including actors, playwrights and critics.  There is also some creative use of the F word and Stockard Channing as Virginia Noyse (pronounced
Noise) does it the best.  You’ll all recognize Megan Mullally who is back in a role she belongs (did I say Annapurna?), where we see a little of the old Karen Walker coming to life as the rich and ditzy producer Julia Budder (pronounced Butter) that goes around misquoting quotes, like ‘Jewish people help me.  I’m a little kerplunked’.  Also adding to the levity is F. Murray Abraham as the mean spirited critic Ira Drew, Matthew Broderick as Peter Austin, the Playwright, Rupert Grint as the egomaniacal Director Frank Finger, and Micah Stock as hired help Gus P. Head.   

 

 

It’s all very funny, and even though some of this might get lost on the not so avid theatergoer, there will still be much laugher and enjoyment to be had by even a novice Broadway baby.   Kudos to Terrence McNally the Playwright.  He brought tears to my eyes last year with Mothers and Sons and tonight brought those tears, but this time in laughter.  He is an amazing talent.   

 

This may be another play about a play.  But this one goes a little further because inside that play there is another play.  Go see it, and you’ll figure it out.  –ThisbroadSway 10/15/2014