D’Arcy Carden and Katie Finneran in “The Thanksgiving Play.”
The Tony nominees were announced last week, which means Broadway show tickets are going to get a lot harder to snag. The two Shakespeare-inspired Broadway shows, both of which are nominated for a number of awards, are must-sees but here are four other shows – two plays, two musicals – that are worth the price of a plane ticket.
The cast of “Shucked.”
The corniest show on Broadway – literally – Shucked is a complete delight from the first note to the last. It’s totally original and unexpected and, whatever you’re imagining this musical comedy to be, there’s a good chance you’re wrong. As one character aptly points out, “There’s a cornfield of difference between simple and stupid. That’s a simple mistake stupid people make.” Um, guilty, as charged.
Shucked tells the story of a small farming community that treasures their corn – and their self-sufficiency. When their cash crop suddenly stops growing, bride-to-be Maizy (Caroline Innerbichler) cancels her wedding to longtime beau, Beau (Andrew Durand) and heads out into the big, outside world – Tampa! – determined to find someone who can help them. She brings back podiatrist, Gordy (John Behlmann) – the corn doctor! – who, of course, knows nothing about farming but wants to get his hands on the town’s rocks that he believes are worth a fortune. Chaos ensues.
What makes Shucked work is that its Hee-Haw sensibility is backed not just with heart but with sharp, smart writing delivered with brilliant timing and an occasional knowing groan by its perfect cast. The puns fly as the actors wait for the audience to catch up and the result is a communal experience that leaves the audience guffawing.
With great musical numbers and relentness wordplay, Shucked is a hootenanny – and a hoot. You may go in rolling your eyes but you’ll end up rolling with laughter.
Jodie Comer in “Prima Facie.”
The term “tour de force” is often loosely thrown around but it can now be defined once and for all as Jodie Comer’s performance in Prima Facie. The one-woman show is a master class in acting and a powerful conversation starter about the subject of sexual assault.
Comer plays Tessa, an ambitious and somewhat cavalier young barrister who’s all about the win. Working for the defense, she’s figured out how to live with the fact that her job often involves making victims of sexual assault relive their trauma and letting rapists get away with their crime. All of this changes when she is date raped by a fellow lawyer.
Watching Tessa change over the course of 100 minutes is astonishing. Thanks to Comer’s jaw-dropping performance and the Tony-nominated set design, it’s almost impossible to believe Comer is the only actor who’s been onstage. She creates an entire world of characters and scenes by herself and it is riveting.
By the end of the show, the audience is emotionally gutted and you can hear a pin drop – until the thunderous applause and shouts of “Brava!” The star of Killing Eve just slays in Prima Facie. If Comer doesn’t win the Tony for Best Actress, well, there is no justice.
Victoria Clark as the title character in “Kimberly Akimbo.”
A true celebration of life, Kimberly Akimbo is as unique as the title character herself. The story of a 16 year old with a rare genetic disease that makes her body age four times faster, it’s not the stuff Broadway musicals are usually made of. Yet it’s surprisingly uplifting and often hilarious.
As Kimberly, 63 year old Victoria Clark achieves the impossible, making us fully believe she is that teenage girl. And she does it so effortlessly, I’m glad the Tony Awards recognized her with a well-deserved nomination. It’s a beautiful, deceptively deep and nuanced performance.
Although she’s determined to live a full life in a short time, Kimberly also just wants to have a normal life – which is not a given with her crazy family. Although they love her, her parents are more concerned about their own needs and desires. Her aunt, played by Bonnie Milligan in show-stealing scenes of comic relief, is a bumbling criminal – and it would have been criminal if she had been overlooked for a Tony.
Quirky, irresistible and unexpectedly profound, Kimberly Akimbo will stay with you long after you’ve left the theater. “No one gets a second chance around,” the cast sings in the finale but don’t worry. If you want to see it again, you can – and you should.
The cast of “The Thanksgiving Play.”
Okay, this satire about four white adults trying to create an accurate and politically correct Thanksgiving play for elementary school children is hysterically funny and brutally on target.
The quartet of actors – D’Arcy Carden (in an exuberant performance that’s a far cry from her role as Janet in The Good Place), Katie Finneran, Scott Foley and Chris Sullivan – nails it as the well-intentioned troupe. They just want to do the right thing yet there seems to be something insensitive to someone in every suggestion.
The Thanksgiving Play is interspersed with videos of kids performing Thanksgiving plays and songs, including some inspired by actual lesson plans, that are hilariously cringeworthy – and proof that, if nothing else, we do recognize when something is wrong. The problem, as the play scathingly points out, is that we don’t know how to make it right.
Playwright Larissa FastHorse, a MacArthur Genius, skewers the “woke” culture, making clear that all our talk about doing the right thing has left us in a tryptophan-like coma, unable to actually make change. And, although it’s hard to swallow, it’s serious food for thought.
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