Angry Alan
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Cititour.com Review
“It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” James Brown may have told us in 1966. However, Roger, a former corporate hotshot turned grocery store employee coping with a bitter ex-wife, an estranged son, and a “liberated” live-in girlfriend, would beg to differ. And so would “Angry Alan,” an online guru-huckster persuading his many followers (including Roger) that they are living in a female-centric “gynocracy,” which doesn’t take men’s “rights” seriously.
Is it really not okay to make an off-color joke at a Christmas party, even one that can easily be interpreted as sexual harassment. Is it now true, as Beyonce sang some years ago, that “Girls Run the World.”? How can men survive in such a hostile environment?
This “dilemma” is treated as both satire and trenchant social commentary – no mean feat – in Penelope Skinner’s 85-minute play, “Angry Alan,” now being given an exemplary production at the new Studio Seaview, thanks in large part to the surprising simplicity and intelligence of Sam Gold’s direction. (Intriguingly, the play debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018 and was co-created by the actor Don McKay --- Skinner’s real-life partner and the originator of the role of Alan.)
Still, the most important element of this production is not the script, but the truly impressive performance by TV and film favorite John Krasinski, returning to the New York stage for the first time in over 20 years. Indeed, the canny casting of Krasinski, whose everyman-like quality, essential affability and bland handsomeness, goes a long way to keeping Roger sympathetic, even as his words and actions devolve into the unforgivable.
Frustrated by a world – both personally and societally -- that has changed too quickly, Roger easily – and almost understandably -- succumbs to Alan’s “cult of personality,” which offers him plenty of answers (wrong ones to be sure), solutions (that only cause more problems) and male camaraderie (mostly via the Internet). Indeed, Alan’s many videos and emails, which end up assaulting Roger’s brain, may feel like ports in the storm swirling through Roger’s mind, but they are far from safe harbors.
Take Roger’s proclamations about “the hypocrisy of the modern woman” – one of Alan’s many bullet points. While it may be said only to us (and yes, this is one of those shows where you don’t fully understand why the main character is talking to the audience), it leads to Roger starting a huge fight with never-seen girlfriend Courtney about why she watched the movie “Fifty Shades of Gray.” In fact, Roger claims, in utter seriousness, that he’s really trying to figure out whether Courtney (and by extension, all women) really want a “sensitive guy” like him, or “a pervert with a torture chamber.” Do we laugh? Do we weep? Does Roger realize, at that moment, his relationship with Courtney is forever doomed?
And so it goes, as Roger’s behavior and actions become far more problematic, especially when he’s faced with a make-or-break moment with his teenaged son Joe – and we’re sadly not surprised that he makes another unfortunate choice when his opportunity to right his world arrives.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://studioseaview.com/
Open/Close Dates
Opening 6/11/2025
Closing 8/3/2025
Theatre Info
Studio Seaview
305 West 43rd Street
Neighborhood: West 40s
New York, NY 10036
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