Patti LuPone complained that today’s Broadway is too much like a theme park. ChrisJonesTrib is not convinced the diva has seen many of the shows this season yet. Not every show has to keep hitting the gas if its quiet revelations are powerful enough.
Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht in"Summer, 1976" at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in New York.
Not every show has to keep hitting the gas if its quiet revelations about the mysteries of life are powerful enough. And when you have actors of the quality and appeal of Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht , the two stars of David Auburn’s subtle “Summer, 1976,” an intimate chance to visit with them can be reason enough to buy a ticket.“Summer, 1976″ begins among junior Ohio State faculty in the titular summer in leafy if prosaic Columbus, Ohio.
And as I looked around in the dark at this Manhattan Theatre Club production, I could see audience members appreciating that these performers’ facility for sharing subtext allowed them to become lost in their own thoughts and memories. I intend that as a compliment to the work of both Auburn and these two highly accomplished stage performers, both very much present.
That’s probably a shrewd, star-friendly move; these days, audience members are less willing to do the work to understand new plays and fresh characters. That’s because of the time we all now spend watching Season 8, or whatever, of a series filled with characters we already know. That’s a big problem for new plays in American theater right now
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