The Nap
Tickets from $79 Buy Tickets
Cititour.com Review
Unless you don’t have a funny bone in your body – or if you have a serious case of narcolepsy – it’s impossible to fall asleep during the first act of Richard Bean’s Brit-com “The Nap” (the title refers to the felt on a snooker table – the British variation of pool), now at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre under Daniel Sullivan’s astute direction.
For over an hour, a truly crackerjack cast hits every one of Bean’s copious one-liners into the pocket, leading one to hope this will be a comedy for the ages – or at least as enthralling than the writer’s previous Broadway outing, “One Man, Two Guvnors.” Alas, after consistently causing our cheeks to hurt and then creating a boffo ending to the first act, Bean sharply switches the work’s tone in the second act without equal deftness.
As the play begins, we find ourselves in a grimy pub in Sheffield, England (the eventual succession of many clever sets is by the ingenious David Rockwell) where young snooker whiz Dylan Spokes (Ben Schnetzer) is preparing for the world championship. He’s soon distracted in his quest, however, by a slew of none-too-welcome guests, beginning with his none-too-bright, ex-drug-dealer father Bobby (a brilliantly funny John Ellison Conlee).
The pair are soon joined by Dylan’s unctuous agent Tony (a delightfully oily Max Gordon Moore), a quirky pool world official (Bhavesh Patel), an attractive policewoman (Heather Lind, whose performance takes on unexpected depth as the show goes on), and Dylan’s skanky, money-grubbing mother Stella (a fabulous, almost unrecognizable Johanna Day) and her current, smelly paramour Danny (Thomas Jay Ryan).
Eventually, his financial sponsor arrives, a transgendered beauty shop owner and quasi-gangster named Waxy Bush, who has an unusual way with words. She is played in bravura scene-stealing fashion by Alexandra Billings, who almost literally sucks up all the air in the room and makes you forget anyone else is even in there.
Waxy’s much-feared (and much-discussed) appearance has to do with Dylan’s failure to deliberately lose a “frame” in a previous match – something that has reportedly caused grave financial consequences – and her demand that he purposely do just that in an upcoming game.
Much is made from the get-go of Dylan’s ultra-moral approach to snooker (and life in general), which turns out to be a problem in more ways than one. Schnetzer isn’t given enough to play as Dylan other than this defining characteristic, making him a rather dull figure onto which hang a two-act comedy. Moreover, while he’s both handsome and appealing, the young actor isn’t quite charismatic enough to overcome this handicap.
The larger problem with “The Nap,” though, is not only that the story turns suddenly darker, but that it ultimately becomes much, much duller -- so much so that there’s even a slight chance your eyes may shut or your mind may wander. And I’ve rarely seen a play that ends as abruptly as “The Nap,” making me wonder if Bean suddenly just got tired of his own creation.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://thenapbroadway.com
Cast
Alexandra Billings, John Ellison Conlee, Johanna Day, Ahmed Aly Elsayed, Heather Lind, Max Gordon Moore, Bhavesh Patel, Thomas Jay Ryan, Ben Schnetzer
Open/Close Dates
Opening 9/27/2012
Closing 11/11/2018
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 9/5/2018
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
Comments
Sign up for our newsletter !