It's Only a Play

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IT'S ONLY A PLAY

Photo: Joan Marcus

Cititour.com Review
I don’t think the Guinness Book of World Records has a category for “Most Inside Jokes About Broadway in a Broadway Play”, but they need to add one now, thanks to Terrence McNally’s “It’s Only A Play” at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. In this up-to-the-moment update of McNally’s 1986 comedy, the award-winning playwright throws out zinger after zinger about the personalities that populate the Great White Way (not to mention one major theatre critic) with alarming alacrity. What the peons from Peoria will make of all this folderol is hard to say. Nor can I be sure how well Harvey Fierstein, the cast of “Matilda” and Tommy Tune will react to McNally’s digs. All I do know I that my jaw literally started to hurt at times from laughing so hard.

The play’s set-up is simple: Peter Austin (Matthew Broderick in a customarily laconic performance) has just had his first play open on Broadway – although he is surprisingly absent from his own opening-night party, which is being held in the chic home of his wealthy producer Julia Budder (Megan Mullally in a blonde wig and a shaky Southern accent).

Actually, Julia is temporarily absent as well, since she’s attending to other, more personal matters. Instead, the show’s first 15 minutes are completely dominated by its two most colorful characters, Peter’s sardonic best friend, TV star Jimmy Wicker (the priceless Nathan Lane), and Gus (Micah Stock), a none-too-bright, fresh-off-the-bus actor whom Julia has hired to be the coat checker for the evening. (And there are more coats here, and more jokes connected to the coats, than you could ever imagine!)

Before the end of a longish act one, Julia’s lavish bedroom (beautifully designed by Scott Pask) gets filled up by Jimmy, Gus, Peter, Julia, the show’s leading lady, Oscar winner (and drug addict) Virginia Noyes (the great Stockard Channing), eccentric wunderkind British director Frankie Finger (“Harry Potter” star Rupert Grint), and creepy critic Ira Drew (F. Murray Abraham), who are all awaiting the reviews that will determine the fate of the is-it-or-isn’t it-aptly-named “The Golden Egg.”

Tony-winning director Jack O’Brien (who gets his own zippy mention in the script) helms the proceedings with a sharp eye and blessedly little subtlety, choosing to let his all-star cast go full throttle. As a result, Lane is allowed to practically devour the stage with his patented brand of outrage, sarcasm, and pitch-perfect double-takes. Meanwhile, Channing (gorgeously costumed by Ann Roth) proves to be both hilarious and heartbreaking as the foul-mouthed Virginia, who we come to realize sees returning to Broadway as a true chance for career and personal redemption.

For her part, Mullally spends most of the play in her ditzy Karen Walker mode, although she does find some depth in Julia. Grint cheerfully camps it up as “Sir Frank”; Abraham is surprisingly game in an unpleasant role; and Stock, who is making his own Broadway debut, basically steals the whole show from his veteran counterparts with his delicious dimness (not to mention his singular rendition of “Defying Gravity”).

Aside from whether out-of-town audiences can withstand (or understand) the almost exhausting number of McNally’s jibes and jabs, the larger question here may be whether they will give two bits about his many screeds about how all of us in the arts are contributing to the decline of the American theater. Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter if they do. After all, it’s only a play!
By Brian Scott Lipton


Visit the Site
http://www.itsonlyaplay.com

Cast
F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Rupert Grint, Micah Stock

Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/9/2014
Closing 6/7/2015

Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 8/28/2014
Closing Open-ended

Box Office
212-239-6200

Theatre Info
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
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