Ripcord
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Cititour.com Review
If you think Felix Unger and Oscar Madison were an odd couple, wait until you meet Marilyn (Marylouise Burke) and Abby (Holland Taylor), the spectacularly mismatched senior citizen roommates in David Lindsay-Abaire’s inventive and often hilarious new work “Ripcord,” now at Manhattan Theatre Club-Stage 1 at New York City Center. While you might think confronting fear of mortality would be the biggest reason to stay away, the only things you may have to fear here is an annoying clown, a few choice coarse words (uttered with disarming precision by Taylor), and a lot of laughter. If these don’t frighten you, take the plunge and see this uproariously funny play, directed with great skill and warmth by the invaluable David Hyde-Pierce.
Lindsay-Abaire, the author of such diverse play as the wacky “Fuddy Meers” and the somber “Rabbit Hole,” has created a clever set-up and an even better follow-through. After the haughty, imperious Abby fails to get the chatty, bubblier-than-prosecco Marilyn booted from her room, thanks in part to the kindly orderly Scotty (a superb Nate Miller), she agrees to take Marilyn up on a bet: if she can get Marilyn “upset,” Marilyn moves downstairs; if Marilyn can “scare” the seemingly unflappable Abby, she gets Abby’s bed with the park view. (Yep, the stakes aren’t exactly equal, but that’s life!)
What seems almost unimaginable is the lengths these two women will go to get what they want – especially the seemingly benign Marilyn, who enlists the help of her feisty daughter Colleen (the sublime, if underused Rachel Dratch) and her ubmissive husband Derek (Daoud Heidami) to pull some very tricky business on Abby. She even brings Abby’s estranged son Benjamin (the excellent Glenn Fitzgerald) into the bet, a decision that ultimately goes a long way to explaining Abby’s behavior, even if thus plot point seems a bit manipulative.
As if often true at MTC, the actors need to compete with the stagecraft: in this case, a clever set by Alexander Dodge that seamlessly goes back and forth between the ladies’ well-appointed living quarters and a variety of other locations. Good as it is, the actors win: especially the deliciously haughty Taylor and the delightfully daffy Burke. I could easily watch them for a half-hour every week!
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.manhattantheatreclub.com
Cast
Marylouise Burke, Rachel Dratch, Glenn Fitzgerald, Daoud Heidami, Nate Miller, Holland Taylor
Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/20/2015
Closing 12/6/2015
Theatre Info
Manhattan Theatre Club
131 West 55th Street
New York, NY 10019
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