Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Star-driven plays, Off-Broadway: Robert O’Hara’s SHIT. MEET. FAN. and Kenneth Lonergan’s HOLD ON TO ME DARLING

• By drediman
• December 9, 2024
• No Comments

This fall/winter season, theatergoers clamored for tickets to two star-driven plays Off-Broadway, both of which commanded top dollar for admission. As per usual, read on for my thoughts on these flawed but fascinating plays.

SHIT. MEET. FAN.
MCC Theater
Through December 15

First up is MCC Theater’s highly anticipated production of Shit. Meet. Fan. (RECOMMENDED) written and directed by Robert O’Hara. Having penned such plays as Bootycandy and Barbecue, O’Hara has made a name for himself for caustic works that ruthlessly excavate the norms that underpin modern society. To be sure, his latest attempts to do the same. Set in present-day New York, Shit. Meet. Fan.tells the story of a group of middle-aged couples — most of whom have been close friends since college — who come together at a house party. Over the course of the increasingly barbaric single-act play (in this regard, the play calls to mind Yasmin Reza’s Tony-winning God of Carnage) — which unfolds largely in real time — the bleak underbelly of their relationships is exposed, especially as influenced by technology, inflated egos, and toxic masculinity. As written and staged, a sitcom quality pervades the piece. Unfortunately, its frequent episodes of audacity occasionally feel forced and juvenile. Thankfully, the acting from the starry ensemble cast — which includes the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, and Debra Messing — is dynamic and very funny. Despite having attained stardom on television, each has cut their teeth in live theater — and it shows — ensuring that O’Hara’s cautionary tale ultimately registers incisively (particularly impressive was Michael Oberholtzer’s no-hold-barred performance, as were Constance Wu and Tramell Tillman as non-White observers of the vulgar proceedings). Suffice to say, the audience had a ball, even if I wished the outrageous hilarity had cut a tad deeper rather than resorting to surface-level shock value.

HOLD ON TO ME DARLING
Lucille Lortel Theatre
Through December 22

Then down at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village, you’ll find the Off-Broadway revival of Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold on to Me Darling (RECOMMENDED). First seen in 2016 courtesy of Atlantic Theatre Company, the alternatingly frustrating and fascinating comedy of manners tells the story of one Strings McCrane, a cross-over country western star who finds himself going down an existential rabbit hole upon his mother’s death. The raison d’être for the current production is to serve as a vehicle for the return of Adam Driver to live theater — the film star was last seen onstage in the 2019 Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This — in the central role of the womanizing Strings McCrane (originally portrayed by Timothy Olyphant in the Atlantic production). Luckily, Driver is up to the task, coming up with an instinctual and magnetic character study, particularly impressive given the tricky, slippery role. Indeed, the actor navigates the delicate balance between the play’s parody and naturalism — as well as the McCrane’s conflicting characteristics (e.g., in turn childlike, seductive, indecisive, and brash) — with poise and finesse. It’s a slow burn of a performance that stretches the running time of the play to just about three hours, and it’s a daring choice that ultimately pays off. Director Neil Pepe returns once again to helm the production, which looks like a carbon copy of his original 2016 mounting. It’s a deliberately-paced staging that gives Driver room to mine the knotted complexities of the character. The rest of the cast is very good — reacting beautifully to the volatility of Driver’s voracious performance.