The Lyons
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Cititour.com Review
Lions aren't known for eating their young, but try telling that to the mama Lyons at the center of Nicky Silver's dark new comedy. That would be Rita Lyons (Linda Lavin), who's been too busy to tell her adult children that their father is terminally ill, so they learn about it when Ben (Dick Latessa) is on his hospital deathbed. Daughter Lisa (Kate Jennings Grant), barely able to cope with divorce, single-parenthood and staying on the wagon, is rocked by the news, as is son Curtis (Michael Esper), a gay writer whose animosity toward Dad isn’t mitigated by his pending demise.
Rita certainly isn't broken up at the thought of losing her husband. Sure, she stays by his bedside, but she's also busy plotting how she'll redecorate the living room or fix up her daughter with a dying man down the hall. Curtis, who initially appears to be the model child, soon reveals he's anything but, following a curious encounter with a real-estate agent (Gregory Wooddell). The familial ties that are supposed to offer solace and warmth were cut long ago, if they were ever there in the first place. The most affection—albeit of the tough-love variety—comes from Ben's nurse (Brenda Pressley) as she strolls in and out of the room.
If you think animosity will be quelled, resentments forgiven and the familial joy unleashed by the time the curtain falls, you're in for a surprise. Without giving too much away, let's just say that Silver's characters are on a different course, and he steers them through it with a beguiling blend of arch humor that never cheapens the weightiness of story or characters.
The same is true of the performances, which depict the pain these characters are in with oddly fitting humor and pathos, especially Lavin's. She underplays Rita beautifully, to the point that her indifference toward her children never seems mean-spirited or irrational—just the result of a woman grown cold by lack of affection and connection.
By Diane Snyder
Visit the Site
http://www.thelyonsbroadway.com
Cast
Linda Lavin, Dick Latessa, Michael Esper, Kate Jennings Grant, Brenda Pressley, Gregory Wooddell
Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/5/2012
Closing 9/2/2012
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
James Earl Jones Theatre
138 West 48th Street
New York, NY 10036
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