Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Dominique Morisseau’s richly acted, character driven SKELETON CREW triumphantly lands on Broadway

• By drediman
• January 27, 2022
• No Comments

Last night, Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Skeleton Crew triumphantly landed on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. The play was previously seen in New York in 2016 in a well-received Off-Broadway production courtesy of Atlantic Theater Company. The work is the final installment of Ms. Morisseau’s trilogy of Detroit-set plays chronicling the Black American experience. Skeleton Crew takes place in a struggling auto factory, whose impending closure sparks angst and tension amongst its employees.

Ms. Morisseau’s character driven play exists in a sort fo moral and ethical purgatory – or more like it, minefield. There are no easy answers for the play’s four characters, and their predicaments grow increasingly dire as the plot machinations churn. The aching and vivid transparency with which the playwright portrays each of their struggles is perhaps the most compelling aspect of the otherwise solidly crafted play. Indeed, the play unfolds their stories with truthfulness and vibrancy, all the while sidestepping obvious stereotypes. Comparisons to Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat (another play set in a dying plant) are inevitable, but Ms. Morisseau’s play distinguishes itself as the more intimate and ultimately compassionate of the two. Together with Ms. Nottage’s Clyde’s, Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over, Skeleton Crew completes a trifecta that represents a Broadway season richly laced in vital Black perspectives.

As in its Off-Broadway incarnation, the play’s Main Stem outing has been directed by the ever reliable Ruben Santiago-Hudson with a steady hand. On Broadway, the play seems tighter and its slow burn more deliberate. Also, the choreographic interludes that animate the dehumanization of factory workers now seem better integrated into the overall tone of the piece. The acting across the board is superb. In the central role of Faye, Phylicia Rashad is all but recognizable, and she imbues the character with Shakespearean gravitas. The play’s three other characters are sensationally brought to life by Chanté Adams, Joshua Boone (who is particularly captivating), Brandon J. Dirden, and Adesola Osakalumi with rich and layered complexity.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

SKELETON CREW
Broadway, Play
Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
2 hours (with one intermission)
Through February 20