‘THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW’: Rachel Brosnahan & Oscar Issac. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW
By Lorraine Hansberry
Directed by Anne Kauffman
Through July 2, 2023
James Earl Jones Theatre
138 West 48th Street,
212-239-6210, https://thesignonbroadway.com/

By Scott Harrah

The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window recently transferred to Broadway after a successful run at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The play was the second work by Lorraine Hansberry after A Raisin in the Sun and never found an audience when it was originally produced in 1964. This is an old-fashioned three-act drama that’s far from perfect and certainly dated, but it’s worth seeing simply to witness amazing performances and experience the long-gone era of epic three-act stage dramas that petered out by the early 1970s. In addition, the show stars Rachel Brosnahan from “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” as well as film star Oscar Isaac.

While A Raisin in the Sun remains a timeless, simplistic saga of African Americans in the 1960, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window is a complex story primarily focusing on a white family in Greenwich Village, with many subplots and characters, including a gay male neighbor, a corrupt politician, a Black artist and others.

Ms. Hansberry’s second play is the saga of Jewish bohemian Sidney Brustein (Oscar Isaac) and the disintegration of his marriage to Iris (Rachel Brosnahan), a young woman from Oklahoma who works as a waitress but yearns to be an actress. Sidney’s wife Iris (Brosnahan) is the ambitious, progressive sister who feels trapped in her marriage. She is nothing like her older sister Mavis (Miriam Silverman), described as “the Mother of Middle Class itself,” who married well, is always impeccably dressed but is racist and antisemitic and initially has much contempt for her brother-in-law, but warms up to him later in the show. The youngest sister Gloria (Gus Birney) is a beautiful young woman who claims to be an “international model.”

Sidney is a struggling artist/writer who has just bought the Village Crier, an alternative weekly newspaper he cannot afford.  Wife Iris is tired of slinging hash as a waitress and her marriage to Sidney hangs tenuously by a proverbial thread as she longs to break into acting. Their marital clashes are quite intense throughout the first act. Meanwhile, Sidney has reluctantly decided to have the newspaper endorse local politician Wally O’Hara (Andy Grotelueschen). In addition, Sidney and Iris are nervous about their friend Alton Scales (Julian De Niro), an African American young man who wants to marry Iris’s younger sister Gloria. Initially, Alton has no idea what Gloria’s real job is.

The first two acts before the intermission are full of tension and politics and are often riveting with lots of dialogue and multiple monologues tying everything together but the third final act unravels with melodramatic twists and scenes that are not fully explained, making the outcome ultimately unsatisfying. If Ms. Hansberry had taken the narrative on a more traditional path, it could easily have been the story of a man who married into a family with three troubled sisters, but hardly the type Chekhov wrote about.  The Parodus sisters all come from Oklahoma, of supposedly Greek and Cherokee extraction. However, with all the various characters and subplots happening simultaneously, the narrative is choppy, uneven and mired with confusion. It is indeed understandable why this show is rarely revived, but it remains a thought-provoking play and depicts the political turmoil of the 1960s quite well. Many will see the show because “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” star Rachel Brosnahan is the leading lady, and she is consistently great throughout the show but in reality, the character of Iris is not a huge role.  Regardless, the whole cast works well together under the direction of Anne Kauffman. Oscar Isaac as Sidney and Miriam Silverman as Mavis are especially noteworthy and both give natural, outstanding performances.

Editor’s Note: The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window received two 2023 Tony Award nominations, one for Best Revival of a Play and one for Miriam Silverman for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 3, 2023
Reviewed at April 30, 2023 press performance.

‘THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW’: Rachel Brosnahan. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW’: Miriam Silverman (Mavis), Tony Award nominee for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW’: Julian De Niro & Miriam Silverman. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW’: Oscar Isaac. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW’: Oscar Isaac & Glenn Fitzgerald. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW’: Gus Birney & Oscar Isaac. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

‘THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW’: Raphael Nash Thompson. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

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‘THE TRUE’: (left to right) Edie Falco, Michael McKean & Peter Scolari. Photo: Monique Carboni

THE TRUE
Written by Sharr White
Directed by Scott Elliott
Through October 28, 2018
The New Group
The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
480 West 42nd Street
(212) 279-4200
www.TheNewGroup.org

By David NouNou

Set in 1977 Albany, NY, Erastus Corning II (Michael McKean) is running for his umpteenth term as mayor. However, this time the stakes are much higher as he has an opponent who could easily defeat him. Sharr White’s new drama The True takes electioneering to simpler but not gentler times. There were fewer women’s voices and no social media. Like today, one still had to plan, scheme and maneuver for votes, but unlike today, one email or tweet couldn’t sink a candidate.

Dorothea “Polly” Noonan (Edie Falco), described as “the blunt, profane, decades-long defender of Albany’s Democratic Party machine” and Mayor Corning’s secretary for the last 35 years, is being kicked out by Corning from his inner circle to improve his chances of winning. Polly has been married to Peter Noonan (Peter Scolari) for decades and Peter and Corning have been best friends for decades. The waters here are muddied by the persistent rumor that Polly and Corning have had a relationship together, and this may or may not be true and it is never clarified to what degree that relationship went. Basically, in those days, it was rumors and gossip that persisted; social media wasn’t invented yet to bring people down.

The uniqueness of the play is the tenacity, fierceness and Polly’s persistence that she keeps fighting for Corning even after she has been pushed out of the inner circle. When so few women were involved in politics back then, the ones who were remained dedicated and loyal to the man and the best for the party. They didn’t flit allegiance from one candidate to another. Does Kellyanne Conway come to mind?

The revelation here is Edie Falco; starting out as jabbering, bordering on pushy and obnoxious, only to display her resolved dedication to a man she loves and one she believes in deeply. Her performance is nuanced and spellbinding. Peter Scolari as her husband has never been better, giving a low-key performance of a supporting husband who is bound to both his wife and best friend and forgives anything that may or may not have happened between them. Rounding out this trio is Michael McKean as Corning; as always, he delivers a steadfast performance.

Scott Elliott’s direction is fluid, thanks in large part to Derek McLane’s easy transforming sets. Sharr White has delivered another entertaining evening in the theater but it is Edie Falco’s stunning and galvanizing performance that you will remember for a long time. She truly embodies the adage of “behind every successful man there is a strong woman.”

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published September 20, 2018
Reviewed at September 16, 2018 press preview performance.

‘THE TRUE’: Michael McKean & Edie Falco. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: (left to right) Peter Scolari, Austin Cauldwell & Edie Falco. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: Edie Falco & Glenn Fitzgerald. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: Edie Falco & Michael McKean. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: John Pankow & Edie Falco. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘THE TRUE’: Edie Falco & Peter Scolari. Photo: Monique Carboni

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