Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – More timely than ever, Joshua Harmon’s PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC makes the jump to Broadway

• By drediman
• January 16, 2024
• No Comments

Over at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, I recently had the chance to catch up with the Broadway transfer of Manhattan Theatre Company’s production of Prayer for the French Republic by Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews, Significant Other). Given recent unfortunate happenings, Harmon’s multi-generational play about a fictitious Jewish family — the Salomons — and their dilemma regarding whether to emigrate from their longtime home in France due to an escalation in antisemitic violence arrives on the Great White Way more timely than when the play premiered Off-Broadway merely two years ago.

Given the play’s scope and subject matter, comparisons to Tom Stoppard’s Tony-winning play Leopoldstadt are inevitable. However, unlike the operatic cadence of Stoppard’s Tony-winning play, Harmon uses intimate, often times searching conversations to generate drama. Spread over three meaty acts and logging in at a final running time of over three hours, Prayer for the French Republiccasts a wide net in terms of themes it attempts to cover. Although the results are largely engrossing, the play’s third and final act loses steam, petering out when it should be emphatically making its final arguments.

Nevertheless, the production as a whole is captivating, thanks largely to the work of director David Cromer and his very fine cast — most of them holdovers from the play’s Off-Broadway days at New York City Center (the notable newcomer is Aria Shahghasemi of The Originals and Legacies fame). Although Betsy Aidem and Francis Benhamou are scene-stealers in the showier mother/daughter roles, it’s the subtler work of those around them that ground the play in melancholy and internalized anxiety. Cromer’s patient, observant staging is an ideal match for the play, shedding the best possible light on Harmon’s casually conversational dialogue.

RECOMMENDED

PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
Broadway, Play
Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
3 hours (with two intermission)
Through February 18