‘THE BALUSTERS’: (clockwise from left) Ricardo Chavira, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Richard Thomas, Anika Noni Rose, Jeena Yi, Marylouise Burke & Kayli Carter. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

THE BALUSTERS
By David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Kenny Leon
Through June 21, 2026
Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th St.
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/shows/2025-26-season/the-balusters

By Scott Harrah

Everyone in Vernon Point thinks they are progressive and open-minded. That is the first misconception and the most revealing one in this blisteringly funny look at bigotry, bias, and 21st-century culture wars. The play draws big laughs even as it cuts close to the bone. In The Balusters, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire sets the scene for a neighborhood association meeting where civility feels carefully staged. At first, the group debates mundane topics like safety, zoning, and aesthetics. Soon, the tone shifts.

What begins as a polite discussion about community values quickly turns into a competition over who can sound the most enlightened, while revealing just the opposite. Brooks (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) recounts a visit to a local store and describes a man’s glare as “an I-hate-gay-people look.” The comment sets off a wave of narrow-minded conclusions about religion, identity, and intent. Vernon Point may be fictional, but The Balusters mirrors modern American tensions around prejudice and identity. As a result, the satire lands with uncomfortable precision. Laughter ripples through the audience. Often, a brief hush follows as the implications sink in.

Civic pride and prejudice

The play opens in the stately Victorian home of Kyra (Anika Noni Rose), a newcomer eager to make a good impression. She and her housekeeper Luz (Maria-Christina Oliveras) prepare for the meeting. Luz knows the neighborhood well because she has worked for several families, including association president Elliot (Richard Thomas).

Kyra’s hopes for a pleasant evening dissolve quickly. First to arrive is Melissa (Jeena Yi), the sharp-tongued vice president, whose awkward misstep with Luz sets the tone. Penny (Marylouise Burke), a well-meaning but often oblivious longtime secretary, follows. Then comes Ruth (Margaret Colin), the blunt and dry-witted treasurer who says what others avoid.

Soon, the room fills with clashing personalities. Isaac (Ricardo Chavira) bristles at political correctness. Alan (Michael Esper) tries to be the “nice guy” but retreats when challenged. Willow (Kayli Carter) polices language with earnest intensity. Brooks observes it all with dry, knowing detachment. Elliot, the self-appointed guardian of the neighborhood’s traditions, arrives ready to preside. As Brooks puts it, “It’s not too late, Kyra. You can still escape.”

Biases simmer beneath the surface

At first, the meeting sticks to routine business. Then an innocuous conversation about safety and whether or not to put up a stoplight exposes deeper biases. What begins as practical concern quickly turns personal. A passing remark about suspicious activity spirals into a debate over racial profiling. Meanwhile, attempts at inclusive language spark their own tensions. The terminology some use starts petty squabbles. For example, one character pushes back against being labeled “Latinx,” calling it “retro woke bulls**t.” Another character objects to the term “lame” as being “ableist.”

The script spares no group. It shows how quickly good intentions give way to defensiveness.

Gavel down, gloves off

Under Kenny Leon’s direction, tensions build steadily before everything unravels into something far messier. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire’s rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue creates strong momentum. Punchlines land in quick succession and often overlap, as if the characters are racing to outdo one another. The staging turns Kyra’s stately home into a pressure cooker. As a result, polite conversation gives way to barely concealed hostility. Each character struggles to maintain composure.

The ensemble is uniformly strong. Anika Noni Rose anchors the production with quiet authority and holds her ground as the room spirals around her. Richard Thomas balances Elliot’s easy charm with an undercurrent of control. Carl Clemons-Hopkins delivers the evening’s driest humor. Marylouise Burke finds both comedy and pathos in Penny’s well-meaning obliviousness. Margaret Colin is especially sharp as Ruth and lands her barbed observations with precision. Together, the cast maintains cohesion even as their characters pull in opposite directions.

Nothing off-limits

By the end, The Balusters shows that nothing is off-limits. Early jabs at anti-fur activism, introduced with Ruth’s arrival, establish the tone for a play that steadily widens its target. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire takes aim at everything from debates over Muslims and gays to casual bigoted perceptions of Jews, Black, and Latino communities. As a result, the play becomes an equal-opportunity lampoon where no one is spared. The humor is relentless and at times uncomfortable. It underscores how true to life the story feels.

Few recent Broadway comedies land laughs this consistently or this uncomfortably.

The Balusters plays like a sharply observed slice of American life. The effort to be thoughtful, inclusive, and aware often veers into something far messier. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire captures both good intentions and high-wire tension in a culture that talks over itself. Every word is scrutinized and every misstep is amplified. In Vernon Point, everyone wants to get it right. That may be the problem. David Lindsay-Abaire’s The Balusters may be the funniest and most incisive look yet at political correctness in American life.

Published April 21, 2026
Reviewed at press preview on April 19, 2026.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: (seated) Jeena Yi, Marylouise Burke & (standing) Michael Esper & Richard Thomas. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Anika Noni Rose & Carl Clemons-Hopkins. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Margaret Colin, Michael Esper & Jeena Yi. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Kayli Carter, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Anika Noni Rose & Jeena Yi. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Anika Noni Rose & Marylouise Burke. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’ (collage, left to right): Margaret Colin & Maria-Christina Oliveras. Photos: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Ricardo Chivira & Margaret Colin. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Richard Thomas & Anika Noni Rose. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

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‘APPROPRIATE’: (Left to right) Michael Esper, Elle Fanning, Natalie Gold, Alyssa Emily Marvin, Corey Stoll & Sarah Paulson. Photo: Joan Marcus.

APPROPRIATE
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Lila Neugebauer
Through June 23, 2024
Belasco Theatre
111 West 44th Street
https://appropriateplay.com/

By David NouNou

What family doesn’t have its ups and downs? The Lafayette family is steeped in it. Three siblings and their families come down to rural Arkansas to settle their deceased father’s dilapidated estate, only to come down and find out and get more than they bargained for. The spelling of “appropriate” has two definitions: one can be what is proper behavior when you come down to settle an estate, the other definition is to take something for your own; like a trust fund or mutual property.

Late at night, Frank (Michael Esper) or Franz as his girlfriend, River (Elle Fanning) has renamed him have just broken into the house that belonged to his father. They arrive a bit early for the estate sale that is going to take place. However, his oldest sibling, Toni (Sarah Paulson) has arrived even earlier with her son, Rhys (Graham Campbell). Toni is in a frenzy due to the fact that Frank hasn’t been in touch with the family for over 10 years or attended the funeral of their dad, but he is here now and why. Middle brother, Bo (Corey Stoll) has also arrived with his wife Rachel (Natalie Gold) and their two children, Cassidy (Alyssa Emily Marvin) and Ainsley (Lincoln Cohen) from D.C.

If you are familiar with Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County you will notice a few similarities. These siblings all have backstories and plenty of baggage and recriminations. The first act is constructed and directed flawlessly. It starts with while packing and putting things away, a photo album is discovered which unleashes a torrent of revelations. Starting with racism, antisemitism, drugs, alcoholism, insults, finger pointing, pedophilia and a little bit of fascination between cousins, this family is toxic. More should not be revealed to the reader who hopefully and ultimately will be a viewer. This show plays like a jigsaw puzzle. Your allegiance to each character keeps shifting throughout the first act. Each time you are steered in one direction, you are quickly jolted into another. That is the purpose of a good show; it keeps the audience engaged and constantly guessing.

Act I ends on a brilliant cliffhanger. Act II begins meandering from the onset. It gets mired in further toxicity about the family and in a lot of cases the action seems contrived and doesn’t flow as easily as it did in Act I. The screwups become repetitious, and this is where playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and director Lila Neugebauer should have collaborated more tightly. They had one of the most brilliant endings in Broadway history about a boy coming down a staircase; instead, they chose to keep trudging along.

Where Ms. Neugebauer does succeed is in her direction of this great ensemble cast, headed by Sarah Paulson. Ms. Paulson’s performance is a tour de force: from her manic entrance, to her emotional breakdown, and her resolution, she thrills throughout. She sets the bar high, and her co-stars Corey Stoll, Michael Esper, Elle Fanning and Natalie Gold are on their toes matching her in riveting performances. The performances of these five actors weave a disturbing tapestry of a dysfunctional family and are compelling throughout the show.

This is one of the season’s must-see shows. The show was set to close on March 3, 2024. It will be on hiatus for about three weeks, and will reopen at the larger Belasco Theatre on March 25, 2024 and run through June 30, 2024.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published February 24, 2024
Reviewed at February 22, 2024 press performance.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Michael Esper, Corey Stoll & Sarah Paulson. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Alyssa Emily Marvin & Elle Fanning. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Michael Esper & Elle Fanning. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Natalie Gold & Corey Stoll. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘APPROPRIATE’: Sarah Paulson. Photo: Joan Marcus.

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‘RIVERDANCE’ REDUX? : Sally Ann Triplett & cast of ‘The Last Ship’ party it up at the pub. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE LAST SHIP
Music & lyrics by Sting
Book by John Logan & Bryan Yorkey
Choreography by John Hoggett
Directed by Joe Mantello
Neil Simon Theatre
250 West 52nd Street
(212-757-8646), www.thelastship.com 

By Scott Harrah

Anyone who grew up in the 1980s knows the work of pop-rock legend Sting, from his early years with the Police and classics like “Roxanne” and “Message in a Bottle” to his mega-hit “Every Breath You Take” and more.  You couldn’t go anywhere back in the day without hearing 16-time Grammy Award winner Sting on the radio or seeing his electrifying videos on MTV.  Unfortunately, pop pedigree doesn’t always translate to the winning ingredients for great musical theater (as Bono and other members of rock royalty with ill-fated recent shows can attest). Sting’s soaring, haunting music and lyrics are not even the problem with the misguided, torpedoed vanity project that is The Last Ship.  In fact, Sting’s melodic, cerebral mid-tempo ballads are one of the best things here, but they aren’t enough to keep this lugubrious musical afloat, and the score, although endearing, seems wasted.

The show has good intentions, but everything about this serious saga is bogged down with clichés, much like that old expression “taking coals to Newcastle,” or in this case, Wallsend, a working-class shipping town in northeast England.  Sober subject matter is tricky stuff in musical theater.  To make a bleak, depressing story work as a Broadway musical, the audience must be offered something that forges an emotional connection.  Beyond that, many want to see at least some spectacle (as in Phantom of the Opera) or lavish costumes and historical significance in addition to infectious songs that propel the story forward (such as  Les Miserables).  What we have here is a barren tale in a non-descript time period, with many well-crafted songs woven into a predictable narrative.

We never see the actual ship being built, not even a part of it, and that is problematic in a show called The Last Ship. There are dreary, dark sets and lighting by David Zinn and Christopher Akerlind (a dimly lit pub, a rusty shipyard and industrial-looking fences), and paper-thin stereotypes for characters, namely out-of-work “blokes,” all hanging out at the local pub, ready to get into fistfights when they aren’t singing about their troubles. There is also the perfunctory curmudgeonly, foul-mouthed, dying Irish priest, Father O’Brien (Fred Applegate), a man who chain-smokes all the time, even in the confession booth.

Although the setting is England, the mood and most of the songs reek of every pandering, “woe-is-me, life-bloody-sucks-let’s-get-drunk” Irish platitude imaginable.  In addition, choreographer Steven Hoggett (of Once fame) pours on the ersatz Gaelic footwork with a sledgehammer.  In nearly half the production numbers, the cast members start stomping their feet, like some lame attempt to recreate every step from each incarnation of Riverdance. This sort of hokey folk dancing was annoying in the overrated Tony winner Once, and is preposterous here.

Michael Esper plays Gideon, the lost lad of about 30 who has returned to his hometown after 15 years.  The father he never got along with has just passed away, and his dad’s profession, shipbuilding, has died as well in the town. Now Gideon wants to get back together with his long-lost love Meg (Rachel Tucker). She has a teenage son, Tom (Collin Kelley-Sordelet) and is wooed to marry Arthur (Aaron Lazar), a man who encourages the unemployed shipbuilders of the town to take jobs he is offering in scrap metal. The shipyard has been closed down, but Father O’Brien convinces the men to try and build one last ship.

It is this clash between the men of hanging on to the past of shipbuilding or selling out to jobs in scrap metal work that creates the tension in the storyline.  However, there is no tangible conflict here, certainly not the type that kept the working-class British shoe-factory heroes of the 2013 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical, Kinky Boots, consistently compelling and colorful, thanks to pop icon Cyndi Lauper’s upbeat, Tony-winning pop score and a multitude of outrageous costumes, served up with a sense of whimsy and fun amidst the harsh themes.

Other than the show’s title song, “The Last Ship,” which has two parts and a reprise in Act I and is the finale in Act II, there are no memorable songs. Gideon’s solo “All This Time” and his duet with son Tom, “Ghost Story,” would sound nice on a Sting album, but seem out of place in a musical.

The biggest flaws here are the leaden book by John Logan (I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers and Red) and Brian Yorkey (If/Then and Next to Normal) and Joe Mantello’s surprisingly shoddy direction. When the show opened in Chicago earlier this year, some critics noted that the story and specifically the character of Gideon (loosely based on young Sting) needed work because he didn’t have enough of a backstory. As is now, he still doesn’t. All we know is he’s been around the world. Why? To find himself? As a result, we feel little sympathy or much of anything for him.

There are some good performances and great voices regardless. As competent an actor as Michael Esper is, he isn’t charismatic enough to carry a show that badly needs to show us its vital signs to keep audiences interested. Rachel Tucker adds the right amount of sincerity and pathos to Meg, and has a pleasant voice. Also worth noting is Aaron Lazar as Arthur, the responsible man who wants to marry Meg and pleads to her to do just that in the song “What Say You, Meg?”

Collin Kelly-Sordelet is one of the show’s only scene-stealers as Tom. His final scene with his father is truly heartwarming. Finally, Fred Applegate adds as much depth as he can to the cartoonish Father O’Brien. The rest of the cast, a testosterone-and-lager-addled motley crew of tough guys and prosaic portrayals of loud, squawky working-class women, are mostly forgettable because they are so poorly written.

Even worse, there are 25 songs in the final version (three of which are variations of the title track), and several of them should have been cut because they go nowhere and don’t move the action forward. One wonders why Sting didn’t do The Last Ship as a concept album. All his fans would have bought it on iTunes and loved it, and millions of dollars would have been saved, but what we have here is something that lacks the requisite heft for a meaningful stage saga.

FATHER & SON: Michael Esper & Collin Kelly-Sordelet Photo: Joan Marcus

BLESS ME, FATHER: Michael Esper & Fred Applegate. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘SHIP’ BUILDERS: Fred Applegate, Jimmy Nail, Sally Ann Triplett & cast of ‘The Last Ship.’ Photo: Joan Marucs

PUB FIXTURES: Rachel Tucker, Shawna M Hamic, Sally Ann Triplett &, Leah Hawking in ‘The Last Ship.’ Photo: Matthew Murphy

LONG-LOST LOVE MEETS LOST LAD: Rachel Tucker & Michael Esper in ‘The Last Ship.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

I’LL SING TO THAT: The cast of ‘The Last Ship.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 26, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on October 25, 2014

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