The Portuguese Kid
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Cititour.com Review
Talk of the brightly lit evening orb. An older woman dallying with a younger man. A sharp-tongued mother. John Patrick Shanley. Does it all sound familiar? Indeed, it does, but “The Portugese Kid,” now debuting at Manhattan Theatre Club, is unfortunately not in the same league as the author’s Oscar-winning screenplay for “Moonstruck.”
Sure, this “romantic” comedy sometimes strikes comic gold, thanks both to Shanley’s sure way with a zinger and a completely committed five-person cast led by the equally wonderful Jason Alexander and Sherie Rene Scott. But too often for its own good, Shanley’s ramshackle script (which he also directed) is likely to strike you as utter nonsense. Moreover, taken as an updated take on the Greek myth of Atalanta (as explained in a program note by Shanley), it’s decidedly more miss than myth.
Indeed, the motivations and personalities of the play’s four main characters change almost as often as John Lee Beatty’s spectacular four-scene set. The work’s primary focus is on childhood pals Barry Dragonetti (the brilliantly bellicose Alexander in a welcome return to the New York stage), a sometimes macho, sometimes wimpy lawyer, and Atalanta Lagana (Scott, looking sensational and milking every moment), a glamorous, shrewd but sometimes painfully insecure Greek widow. Yet, as we watch this pair engage in a war of wits and words for 90 or so minutes, it often feels less like they are flesh-and-blood humans and more like they are chess pieces being moved around by Shanley to suit his whim. (It doesn’t help that Alexander and Scott rarely radiate any genuine romantic chemistry.)
Not even the introduction of Barry’s much younger wife, Patty (an eminently watchable Aimee Carrero), who seems to have almost as many personalities as Sybil, and the dimwitted, poetry-spouting, faux Francophile Freddie (a game Pico Alexander) – who happens to be both Atalanta’s current paramour and Patty’s never-forgotten ex-lover—really raises the stakes of the work very much. They’re mere pawns here; not real players in a match where the outcome is predictably predestined. Admittedly, I kept waiting for a twist, but even the martinis served in the final scene had only olives in them.
The show’s secret weapon – its true Queen, perhaps -- proves to be the ever-invaluable Mary Testa as Barry’s bitter, shrewish mother. (Yes, she’s only four years older than Alexander, but who cares!) The aptly-named Mrs. Dragonetti can be mean, insensitive, even quasi-monstrous, but in Testa’s expert hands, she’s also hilarious. And she is the one character who is ultimately the voice of wisdom -- even when it’s cloaked in equal parts bile and raw cabbage. I kid you not.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://theportuguesekid.com
Cast
Jason Alexander, Pico Alexander, Aimee Carrero, Sherie Rene Scott, Mary Testa
Open/Close Dates
Opening 9/19/2017
Closing 12/10/2017
Box Office
212-581-1212
Theatre Info
Manhattan Theatre Club
131 West 55th Street
New York, NY 10019
Map
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