THE HANGOVER REPORT – Lauren Yee’s THE GREAT LEAP is entertaining but overly ambitious

B.D. Wong and Ned Eisenberg in Lauren Yee's "The Great Leap" courtesy of Atlantic Theater Company at Atlantic Stage 2.

B.D. Wong and Ned Eisenberg in Lauren Yee’s “The Great Leap” courtesy of Atlantic Theater Company at Atlantic Stage 2.

This weekend, I caught Lauren Yee’s enjoyable if overly ambitious and eager new play The Great Leap courtesy of Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company at Atlantic Stage 2. I was a fan of the playwright’s compact earlier effort in a word, which enjoyed a fine production at Cherry Lane Theater last summer. Although I had a perfectly fine time at her latest piece, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Ms. Yee here has bitten off more than she could chew. The Great Leap tells the story of a spunky young Chinese American basketball player who, through the sheer force of his will, attains a spot on an elite college team. The play stretches believability when it starts to weave in highly unlikely coincidences and global geo-political events. Still, Ms. Yee writes with a punchy exuberance that continues to be a joy to listen to.

Director Taibi Magar scored a triumph earlier this season with her work on Aleshea Harris’s Is God Is at Soho Rep. If her work on The Great Leap doesn’t exhibit the same level of audacious theatricality as that previous staging, she nonetheless injects Ms. Yee’s play with vitality and propulsion. She coaxes some entertainingly broad performances from her quartet of actors. Faring best though is the great B.D. Wong – a Tony-winner for the original production of M. Butterfly (can you believe it) twenty years ago – who gives a sensitive performance that ultimately eclipses the pyrotechnics of his fellow cast members.

RECOMMENDED

 

THE GREAT LEAP
Off-Broadway, Play
Atlantic Theater Company at Atlantic Stage 2
1 hour, 55 minutes (with one intermission)
Through June 24

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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