Airline Highway
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Cititour.com Review
Lisa D’Amour doesn’t name her plays after glamorous locales. Detroit, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2011, followed two neighboring couples living in a suburban development that had seen better days. The searing Airline Highway — her first to hit Broadway, courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club — looks at the denizens of The Hummingbird, a dilapidated motel along a stretch of road in New Orleans that has seen better days
Both these plays also have in common characters battling addictions — be they to substances or other people — and unable to exorcise the demons that have brought them to society’s fringes. In Airline Highway they are (as my theatergoing companion pointed out) the contemporary equivalents of the barflies in The Iceman Cometh, only without any pipe dreams to help them through.
But they have a sense of community. As Airline Highway begins, they’re preparing for the “funeral” of the motel’s oldest resident, former burlesque queen Miss Ruby (Judith Roberts), who wanted to have the ceremony while she was still living so she could hear people say nice things about her. As she lies close to death in her room, Tanya (Julie White), an aging prostitute fighting drug addiction, and the other longtime residents Miss Ruby has counseled over the years come together to celebrate her life in the motel parking lot, on Scott Pask’s tawdry two-tier set.
The party occasions the return of former resident Bait Boy (Joe Tippett), so named because of a penchant for jailbait, although now he likes to be called Greg. He’s stepped up in the world by becoming the live-in lover of an older woman in Atlanta and, along with a Whole Foods sandwich platter, he brings her teenage daughter, Zoe (Carolyn Braver). Eager to interview the residents for a school assignment on subcultures, Zoe finds herself actually enjoying the camaraderie at The Hummingbird.
Her presence gives characters like manager Wayne (Scott Jaeck), transvestite Sissy Na Na (K. Todd Freeman) and stripper Krista (Caroline Neff), who was Bait Boy’s lover, opportunities to open up about how they ended up living in a cheap residential motel. Stories range from bad childhoods to bad decisions, but the most compelling aspect of this sprawling, character-rich ensemble drama is how Tanya et al. can’t escape from the grip of what brought them to this state in the first place, whether due to bad luck, poor choices, personal weakness or some combination of them all.
Joe Mantello’s sharp production, with its cast of 16, pulses with the pains and pleasures of its characters. White, best known for broad comic turns in plays like The Little Dog Laughed, shows her skill with a woman fighting to hang on to what little she has. Airline Highway is a timeless tragedy, but also one that’s especially relevant in contemporary America, where it’s become a herculean task to rise up out of society’s basement. D’Amour’s run-down characters resonate with haunting intensity in a play that has the makings of a classic.
By Diane Snyder
Visit the Site
http://airlinehighwaybroadway.com
Cast
Carolyn Braver, K. Todd Freeman, Scott Jaeck, Ken Marks, Caroline Neff, Tim Edward Rhoze, Judith Roberts, Joe Tippett, Julie White, Todd D’Amour, Shannon Eagen, Venida Evans, Joe Forbrich, Leslie Hendrix, Sekou Laidlow, Toni Martin
Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/23/2015
Closing 6/14/2015
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 4/1/2015
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
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