‘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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NEW YORK – Producers Seaview, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, with Jeremy O. Harris and BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), are thrilled to announce that the sold-out and highly acclaimed BAM production of Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, starring Oscar Isaac (making his Broadway debut) and Rachel Brosnahan, will transfer to Broadway this season. Directed by Anne Kauffman, this strictly limited engagement will begin performances on Tuesday, April 25 for 80 performances only. Opening night – the final opening of this Broadway season – is set for Thursday, April 27, at the James Earl Jones Theatre.

To purchase tickets, please visit Telecharge.com.

Rachel Brosnahan. Photo: Courtesy of OMDKC.

Welcome to 1960s Greenwich Village, where loudly proclaimed progressive dreams wage war with reality. This razor-sharp tragicomical satire of “astonishing force” (The Chicago Tribune) invites us into the apartment of Sidney and Iris Brustein and the diverse and passionate social circle that inhabits it. As a rapidly changing world brings uninvited cynicism to their door, the Brusteins fight to keep their marriage – with all its crackling wit, passion, and casual cruelty – from being the final sacrifice to Sidney’s ideals. The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window debuted on Broadway in 1964, on the heels of Hansberry’s meteoric debut with A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and shortly before her death at the age of 34. This will be its first time on Broadway in more than 50 years. Its run at BAM welcomed new audiences and broke every house record at the Harvey Theater. This is the first BAM-produced production to transfer to Broadway since The Gospel at Colonus, 35 years ago.

The late playwright Lorraine Hansberry. Photo: Courtesy of OMDKC.

“This production, directed by Anne Kauffman and originally produced and nurtured by David Binder and BAM, is a celebration of the radical artistic vision of Lorraine Hansberry at the zenith of her art making.” — Joi Gresham, Literary Trustee, Estate of Lorraine Hansberry Joining Isaac (Sidney Brustein) and Brosnahan (Iris Brustein) is the complete cast from the BAM production, including Gus Birney (Gloria Parodus), Julian De Niro (Alton Scales), Glenn Fitzgerald (David Ragin), Andy Grotelueschen (Wally O’Hara), Miriam Silverman (Mavis Parodus Bryson), Raphael Nash Thompson (Max).

The understudy company features Joey Auzenne, Katya Campbell, Gregory Connors, and Brontë England Nelson. Download headshots HERE. The creative team includes dots (Scenic Design), Brenda Abbandandolo (Costume Design), John Torres (Lighting Design), Bray Poor (Sound Design), Leah Loukas (Wig Design), Arminda Thomas (Dramaturg), Kate Wilson (Voice Coach), Sonya Tayeh (Movement Director), Ralph Stan Lee (Stage Management). Casting is by Taylor Williams.

For more information, please visit www.thesignonbroadway.com

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THE YOUNGERS: (left to right) Sophie Okonedo, Denzel Washington & Anika Noni Rose in
‘A Raisin in the Sun.’ Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

A RAISIN IN THE SUN
By Lorraine Hansberry
Directed by Kenny Leon
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
243 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.raisinbroadway.com

By Scott Harrah

A Raisin in the Sun has been revived as a vehicle for Denzel Washington and originally for Diahann Carroll (who left the show during rehearsals), but it’s also important to see this because Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 epic is one of the greatest American plays of all and certainly the greatest African-American drama ever, from both a structural and standpoint.

The late Ms. Hansberry’s saga of the Youngers, an African-American family in 1950s Chicago, groundbreaking when the show debuted on Broadway 55 years ago, and although parts of story are dated, the overall themes of a family grappling with adversity, broken dreams and
s struggle for independence are timeless.

The box-office draw here is certainly Mr. Washington, and he is more than effective (though a bit mature for the role) as Walter Lee, the chauffeur with dreams of one day owning liquor store.  However, the role of Lena/Mama requires the largest acting ability in the show, LaTanya Richardson Jackson is marvelous as the bighearted matriarch with plans to use late husband’s $10,000 insurance money to buy a home in a better neighborhood (Ms. was a last-minute replacement for Ms. Carroll).

The central theme is the betterment of life for African Americans, but there is a universal about family and everyone’s unique dreams that gives the story mass appeal. While wants a nicer house, Walter yearns to use his father’s money to invest in a liquor store.

One might think a play originally produced more than 50 years ago would be dated, but A Raisin in the Sun is so epic and the dialogue so crisp that we overlook such outmoded things Joseph Asagai (Sean Patrick Thomas) discussing the benefits of living in Nigeria with
Walter Lee’s sister (Anoki Noni Rose), a fellow student who wants to marry her and her back to Nigeria his homeland. Mama wants Beneatha to use some of her father’s money to attend medical school.

Things are further complicated when Walter Lee’s wife, Ruth (Sophie Okonedo) discovers she pregnant but fears having another child will only bring the family more financial trouble.

Tensions build with each successive scene, and sensitive topics ranging from abortion to are integral to the plot.

Director Kenny Leon extracts great performances from the cast, but ultimately the weight of play is Mama’s responsibility, and Ms. Richardson Jackson is consistently dynamic and in the part, an amazing feat considering she was brought in just under the wire to the lead.

Before the show begins, the curtain at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre flashes stills of the late Hansberry and the Langston Hughes poem that inspired the title.  It’s a fitting tribute the memory of Ms. Hansberry, a young woman who died of cancer at age 34 but left behind a story that is still so haunting and full of truth in the 21st century. For A Raisin in the Sun is as much a tale of families struggling and managing to stay together through adversity as it a chronicle of the African-American experience, so it is a story to which all Americans, of race or ethnicity, can relate.

WALTER LEE & MAMA: Denzel Washington & LaTanya Richardson Jackson in ‘A Raisin in
the Sun.’ Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

Five Tony Nominations, including: Best Drama Revival; Best Drama Director, Kenny Leon; Best Actress in a Drama, LaTanya Richardson; Best Supporting Actresses in a Drama, Sophie Okonedo; and Anika Noni Rose.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 5, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on April 4, 2014

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