‘Airline Highway’: Down and out in the Big Easy

EXQUISITE ENSEMBLE: The outstanding Julie White & Carolyn Braver, with (background) Scott Jaeck in ‘Airline Highway.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

AIRLINE HIGHWAY
By Lisa D’Amour
Directed by Joe Mantello
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6280), www.AirlineHighwayBroadway.com

By Scott Harrah

Take every misfit plagued with misfortune from such Tennessee Williams plays as Vieux Carré, set the scene in modern-day, post-Katrina New Orleans and you have Lisa D’Amour’s innovative, beautifully acted but ultimately contrived Airline Highway, which recently opened on Broadway after a successful run by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. This drama full of colorful, down-on-their-luck characters has a lot going for it, but the problem is we have seen variations of these Big Easy personalities and their sad lives before.

Set in the parking lot of the seedy Hummingbird Motel, on Airline Highway in New Orleans (hence the show’s title), the story centers on a group of people gathering for a funeral for burlesque club grande dame Miss Ruby (Judith Roberts). Miss Ruby is gravely ill but isn’t dead yet, and her friends want to throw her a high-spirited funeral party/wake before she passes.

Nearly all the characters are stereotypes, but are exquisitely acted regardless. The standout is Broadway veteran Julie White as Tanya, an aging prostitute who lives in the rundown motel (along with many others). Tanya is the quintessential “hooker with a heart of gold,” and Ms. White portrays her with a raw sincerity that makes the character truly heartbreaking.

Equally exemplary is K. Todd Freeman as Sissy Na Na, a spunky African-American drag queen who is wise and lovable. Included in the ensemble are Krista (Caroline Neff), a stripper; Wayne (Scott Jaeck), the motel manager; Bait Boy (Joe Tippett), a former New Orleans resident who has returned from Atlanta (where he’s shacked up with a rich sugar mama) to pay last respects to Miss Ruby; and Bait Boy’s girlfriend’s teenage daughter Zoe (Carolyn Braver), a high school student working on a sociology project on subcultures.

Act One moves along briskly, as characters prepare for Miss Ruby’s funeral later in the day and talk about their troubles. Scott Pask’s lifelike set—showing everything from trash strewn everywhere to glimpses into the motel rooms (complete with cartoons on TV sets and people in the shadows smoking, etc.), and a sign advertising rates as low as $34.99—captures the decay of the surroundings well. At times, several characters talk at once, so we see multiple conversations going on simultaneously. While this adds a remarkable sense of realism, it also becomes distracting to the audience, and that’s a problem in a play this unfocused.

By Act Two, things start out lively, with everyone sporting Mardi Gras beads and grooving to jazz music, but the show soon takes a predictable turn. Characters get drunk and high, eat junk food, and truths are revealed. The dreary tone becomes repetitious, but director Joe Mantello makes the most of things with the talented cast.

Like the Tennessee Williams plays playwright Lisa D’Amour emulates, Airline Highway has lots of florid, poetic dialogue, including a rambling, philosophical soliloquy by Miss Ruby herself (she doesn’t come onstage until well into Act Two). Unfortunately, the crisp dialogue and first-rate performances are not enough to make us overlook the overall feeling of dramatic déjà vu and the timeworn sentimentality of the play.

YOU GO, GIRL: K. Todd Freeman & company of ‘Airline Highway’. Photo: Joan Marcus

NEW ORLEANS MISFITS: Caroline Neff & company of ‘Airline Highway’. Photo: Joan Marcus

PARTY GIRLS: A scene from ‘Airline Highway.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

CATCHING UP WITH PEOPLE FROM THE PAST: (left to right) Caroline Neff, Joe Tippett & Carolyn Braver. Photo: Joan Marcus

GREAT ENSEMBLE: The cast of ‘Airline Highway.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

TANYA, THE PROSTITUTE & MOTEL MANAGER WAYNE: Julie White & Scott Jaeck. Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 27, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on April 26, 2015