Tag Archives: Second Stage

Breaking the Story

Off-Broadway, Play June 4, 2024 Comments: 2

Alexis Scheer’s Breaking the Story begins quite literally with a bang.  A shell has just exploded next to conflict journalist Marina and her cameraman/romantic partner, Bear.  Renowned for unearthing the human side of war, she’s made a bad call while covering yet another war zone.  Missing and presumed dead, headlines featuring Marina’s many accomplishments dominate the news cycle.  Then as the lights come up a second time, all is peaceful at the large house in Wellesley, Massachusetts that  Marina has just purchased.  Due to receive a distinguished achievement award for her 20 years of service, she decides to tack on a wedding and hastily proposes to Bear.  She invites all those who are closest to her for the double celebration.  Attempting to devote herself to this new life, she promises her mother, daughter, and best friend that she’s ready to hang up her flak jacket for good.

It is immediately obvious that whatever she says, Marina is not at home here.  In scenic designer Myung Hee Cho’s set and Elaine J. McCarthy’s projections, the grass is too green, the flowers are several feet high, and the house is an empty frame. Her professional drive is at war with whatever love she feels for those around her.  Her trauma-triggered nightmares keep intruding on this world. Lighting designer Jeff Croiter ensures that everything is uncomfortably bright around her.  Noises from the front penetrate the sound design of Darron L West.  Even as she plans her wedding, costume designer Emilio Sosa never switches up her khaki and black garb.

Julie Halston and Maggie Siff in Breaking the Story; photo by Joan Marcus

It also becomes evident that though her coverage of the perpetrators and victims of battle are deep and affecting, Marina has never been able to properly tell her own story.  For that report, the lead has been taken by Nikki, a fan and rival with a podcast about Marina’s work. As a very-long-distance Mom, she has relinquished her say in the life of her daughter Cruz, an 18 year old aspiring singer. Marina’s mother — known to all as Gummy — has woven her own personal motivation into the history of her daughter’s chosen profession. Her bestie, Sonia, considers herself one step ahead of her friend, though she might not be on the same road at all.  Even Bear really only knows her under extraordinary, often perilous circumstances.

Though the overarching themes of war and politics are handled with brutal honesty, Scheer’s dialogue is full of humor, warmth and insight.  The effect is simultaneously funny and horrifying.  Director Jo Bonney brings out the best in her entire cast, helping them smoothly ride the changing emotional waves.  Maggie Siff’s Marina is at once delightful and infuriating.  In perfect contrast, Tala Ashe brings perky polish to Nikki.  With a gorgeous voice and a sullen look, Gabrielle Policano fleshes out young Cruz while the invaluable Julie Halston delivers Gummy with her well-known spunk and wit.  Sonia is total class and business in the hands of Geneva Carr.  And Louis Ozawa lends his warmth and charm to Bear.  Matthew Saldívar makes a brief but memorable appearance as Marina’s suave ex-husband, Fed.

Breaking the Story is a captivating and intelligent night of theater.  With wars in Ukraine and Gaza regularly leading the news, it’s an opportune moment to dive into the world of those who take risks — sometimes fatal ones — to put faces to these tragedies. It also marks the penultimate production Second Stage will present in their longtime home at 305 West 43rd Street and it’s a shame to be losing this venue.  Even towards the back of the house, the sound was crisp and the sightlines clear.  Performances are available through June 23.  Running time is an absorbing 85 minutes.  Curtain is at 7PM with matinees on the weekends.  Tickets begin at a bargain $35 and can be purchased at https://2st.com/shows/breakingthestory.

Cardinal

Off-Broadway, Play, Uncategorized January 30, 2018 Leave a comment

Second Stage Theater Cardinal By Greg Pierce Directed By Whorlsky Cast Beck Ann Baker Anna Chlumsky Alex Hurt Adam Pally Stephen Park Eugene YoungMany of us have experience working with someone who’s a big picture dreamer.  Unchecked by a healthy skeptic — much less an opponent with a better idea — they good-naturedly lead their team down a path to The Emoji Movie or Pets.com.  Greg Pierce starts out telling one such story in Cardinal in which Lydia Lensky returns to her hometown with the wild idea of literally painting it red.  With tremendous enthusiasm and few facts, she persuades the locals that this gimmick will attract tourism and new business.

It’s clear from the moments that click in this production that if Mr. Pierce had focused on developing this plot line and fully explored the themes of unintended consequences and shifting alliances, Cardinal might resonate.  Towns around America are going through similar changes and struggling to find solutions.  Instead of trusting there was enough to say on this important topic, the playwright tosses in sexual obsession, cultural bias, the working poor, and addiction.  The final concoction is as tasty as the dish cooked up by Rachel Green in “The One Where Ross Got High.”  (For non friends of Friends, the recipes for shepherds pie and trifle had stuck together.)

I can see how Lydia’s well-meaning messiness might be attractive to Anna Chlumsky, fresh off yet another Screen Actors Guild win for VEEP.  The actress certainly pours energy into her attempt to create an emotional arc for a character that moves from A to B and then drifts back to A.  It is helpful that her primary foil is brought to life by Adam Pally who is known for mining comedy gold.  Sadly Pally’s timing cannot save their weightier exchanges from tumbling headlong into melodrama.  Scenes between Becky Ann Baker and Alex Hurt as a small business owner and her mentally challenged son ring truer, but all too soon their storyline also hits a wall.  Rounding out the characters, a Chinese businessman and his son portrayed by Stephen Park and Eugene Young are mostly offensive.

The behind the scenes team seems to have trouble keeping up with the scattered emotional beats and plot turns.  Director Kate Whoriskey — who helped bring the astoundingly powerful Sweat to life — establishes a pattern of using the town’s worker-bees to ease scene transitions only to be confronted with sections where this ploy doesn’t fit the action.  Derek McLane’s brick set may make location changes easier, but it too doesn’t consistently work to give us the proper sense of place.  Some of the sound and light elements are cheesy.  This may be intentional but in that case the artistic commitment isn’t strong enough.

Like many members of my profession, I believe it’s essential to fairly review those works that are not my cup of tea.  However, there are some offerings that must be called out for simply “not working.”  I attended Cardinal with five friends all of whom had a negative experience.  (They tell me it’s the first time in 25 years they’ve had the same reaction to a night at the theater.)  What did the good folks at 2nd Stage read that was lost along the way?  Perhaps the creative team behind this world premiere was carried away by its own Lydia Lensky when it added the commissioned work to the season.  Let me know what you think if you decide to purchase a ticket at https://2st.com/shows/current-production/cardinal.