‘Pictures from Home’: Scenes from a marriage

‘PICTURES FROM HOME’: Zoe Wanamaker. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

PICTURES FROM HOME
Written by Sharr White
Based on the photo memoir Pictures From Home by Larry Sultan
Directed by Bartlett Sher
Through April 30, 2023
Studio 54
254 West 54th Street
(212-239-6200), www.PicturesFromHomeBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Here is the conundrum: Pictures From Home, “based on the photo memoir”—in a digital age, where every picture is either posed for or a selfie on a smartphone camera, where every shot looks like the previous shot, and the images are thumbed through and disposable—feels awkward in 2023. Writing a play about analyzing pictures that seem to appear as they are when they were taken, but can tell a different story when dissected, is inherently problematic in the 21^st century. It’s a singular idea viewed in a dual dimension.

The play has the feeling of being performed in a vacuum. Sharr White’s play is based on photographer/college professor Larry Sultan’s book, a photo memoir, analyzing pictures from his childhood in Brooklyn with his parents and two brothers. His parents move to the San Fernando Valley in California. Starting in 1982, for eight years Larry (Danny Burstein) is searching for his parents’ aspirations in various pictures taken in earlier years. His father, Irving Sultan (Nathan Lane), was a suit salesman in New York City and moved to California for a better life and became a VP, selling Schick razors. His mother, Jean Sultan (Zoe Wanamaker), is a successful real estate broker. His father has been retired for years, but his mother is still working, awaiting the day they can both retire and move to Palm Desert. What’s keeping them in their home? It is Larry coming every two weeks to dissect his parents and their pictures.

Although Larry is a successful photographer and a college professor, he lives in San Francisco with his pregnant wife and son. He flies down in constant search for something even he doesn’t know what he is looking for— it must have been nice to have such an understanding wife—and here is the head-scratcher: I understand that this is Larry’s odyssey; however, there is no mention of either one of his brothers. They are nowhere to be seen or talked about other than their childhood photos. Larry behaves as if he is the only son in the family searching for his aspirations through the dissection of his parents.

59 Productions must be given credit for their projections of Larry Sultan’s family pictures. They are not superimposed pictures of Nathan Lane and Zoe Wanamaker but the actual pictures of Irving and Jean Sultan. This is also where the vacuum and conundrum take place. Trying to thread aspirations through yesteryear’s pictures and trying to get a resolution is not compelling enough for a 105-minute play. Because ultimately, what family doesn’t have its ups and downs?

We are left with three of Broadways best veteran actors doing their best to give us a semblance of what Larry is searching for. Nathan Lane delivers a savagely charming performance as Irving, both biting and effective. Zoe Wanamaker as Jean, long absent from Broadway, delivers the best performance of the evening. She is the anchor that gives reality to this flimsy tale and she does it with great compassion. The hardest part is Larry. Mr. Burstein tries to imbue him with humanity, but the character is so lost in search of his parents, that when Larry’s children grow up, they will be facing the same dilemma of where was their father when they were growing up.

Director Bartlett Sher works hard trying to breathe life into this project, but it is very difficult to add focus to a play with so many flaws.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published February 23, 2023
Reviewed at February 22, 2023 performance.

‘PICTURES FROM HOME’: Nathan Lane & Danny Burstein. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘PICTURES FROM HOME’: Danny Burstein & Nathan Lane. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘PICTURES FROM HOME’: Nathan Lane & Danny Burstein. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.