April, 18 2009
By: stacey_in_ma
Edited by: Marcy

I have not seen any of Craig Lucas' other plays so I'm not sure if this play is typical of his style or not. So I really have no way to compare with any of Lucas' other works. I think I may try to find some of his published plays before I go see TSF again in May.

The way this play is structured, it would seem almost an impossible task to pull off perfectly and this play is far far from perfect. Having said that, it doesn't mean I don't like it. As a whole I don't think it's really successful but I liked many elements of it. The characters, the actors, the pacing (I was never bored and the time went very quickly), the set design. The sound tech for this play is a VERY busy person. Whoever is in charge of sound is to be commended. There are so many sound cues, it's crazy! I think it's a play that tries to do to much or be more profound and substantive than needed to be. It would have worked just fine as a crazy family comedy and I think it could have still touched poignantly on Loe and her family's Holocaust experience. For me, it was almost like the holocaust portion of the play wasn't intense enough, if that makes sense. I mean, if you're going to completely change gears from comedy to drama then really take me there. I really felt more disconnected from the more dramatic parts of the play. I don't know...maybe it's just me and maybe I'll feel differently after seeing the play today. I just thought the play worked much more effectively as a comedy.

And I didn't really talk much about Randy in my previous report. I thought his acting was great. I enjoyed Laszlo and thought Randy did a great job with Zeitzler. But, Randy's part, especially Laszlo, is fairly limited. It would have been nice to see a bit more of Lazslo's relationship with Oliver. I would love to see Randy do more comedy. He's got great comic timing. :-)

Oh, and one more story. After we left the theatre we were standing at the corner of 8th and Lafayette trying to figure out where to go get something to eat, and as we were talking I noticed the actress who played Loe's daughter standing there waiting for the light. She was with a friend so I went over and told her how much I enjoyed the play and she and her friend and Lex, Karyn and I started talking and had a very nice conversation. She was SO nice! We got our picture taken with her. She was really interested to know what we thought of the play and was happy that Karyn had seen it three times. When she asked us if there was a particular reason we were seeing it multiple times we mentioned Randy, of course, and her eyes just lit up, lol. Randy always makes a good impression with his co-workers. :p She asked if we knew him and we said we're fans but he knows our names and stuff. She was also happy to see that we were there, she mentioned being happy to see younger people in the audience. It's really too bad that theatre (at least off-Broadway) seems to be mostly attended by older people. Anyway, she was a total sweetheart.




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Written by Stacey edited by Marcy