Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Sharr White’s stage adaptation of Larry Sultan’s PICTURES FROM HOME is only half convincing as drama

• By drediman
• February 10, 2023
• No Comments

Last night, Sharr White’s stage adaptation of Larry Sultan’s 1992 photo memoir Pictures from Home  opened on Broadway at Studio 54. In essence, Sharr’s play is a family drama that excavates the relationship between a San Francisco Bay Area-based photographer — portrayed, in a heartfelt turn, by Danny Burstein (a Tony-winner for his extravagant performance in Moulin Rouge) — and his aging parents (played masterfully by the great Nathan Lane and Zoë Wanamaker). During his curiously frequent visits to his parents’ Southern California home, he takes ample photos of them in hopes of developing a better understanding of their lives.

On paper, Sultan’s book is an intriguing choice for theatrical interpretation. Sharr’s resulting stage adaptation is a memory play, very much in the same vein as Tennessee Williams’ classic The Glass Menagerie in its narrator’s obsession to come to terms with the past and the ghosts and memories that inhabit it. However, his underlying desire to make sense of his parents, their marriage, and his relationship with them is hampered by yhe repetitive debates over the merits of his compulsive need to capture them on camera. In some instances, Sharr even seems to hint at the potential limitations of art itself to authentically shed light on its subjects, which seems at odds with idea of adapting Sultan’s memoir for the stage. It’s only in the play’s touching second half — during which conversations evolve to address more immediate, less abstract matters — does it start to successfully yield dramatic dividends.

The production at Studio 54 has been helmed with a sensitive hand by Bartlett Sher, who once again proves why he is one of Broadway’s most sought-after directors. Together with his frequent collaborator set designer Michael Yeargan, they’ve created a sleek yet suggestive theatrical world that fascinatingly exists at the intersection of Sultan’s objective photography and Sharr’s more overtly searching agenda. And despite my reservations regarding the play itself, there’s no doubt of the prowess and commitment of the the production’s trio of performances.

RECOMMENDED

PICTURES FROM HOME
Broadway, Play
Studio 54
1 hour, 45 minutes (without an intermission)
Through April 30