‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: Chris Sullivan & D’Arcy Carden. Photo: Joan Marcus.

THE THANKSGIVING PLAY
Written by Larissa FastHorse
Directed by Rachel Chavkin
Through June 4, 2023
The Hayes Theater
240 West 44th Street
(212-541-4516), www 2st.com

By David NouNou

Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play is about as close to the theatre of the absurd as one can get. However, this absurdity is in the form of a satire on the state of “woke.” Ms. FastHorse, being a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is the ideal person to write such a play and capture all the nuances of the spoken word of what can be said or can’t be said on or off stage.

Logan (Katie Finneran) was an actress and now is a director for an elementary school. She has just received a grant to direct a Thanksgiving play providing it has a Native American in the cast. She and her boyfriend, Jaxton (Scott Foley), a street performer/yoga enthusiast, are jointly working to present this play in a non-offensive, nontraditional, non-confrontational way and trying to sort out all the machinations on how this will come about.

Logan brings in two people that hopefully can sort out all the issues that arise in today’s “woke” society. In comes writer Caden (Chris Sullivan); he is an aficionado on the matter and has done research on Thanksgiving dating back to 3,000 years ago. The second is Alicia (D’Arcy Carden), an actress whom Logan hired, thinking she is a Native American. As it turns out Alicia is everything but a Native American. Her agent has advised her to have six different headshots to qualify her for any role from Native American to a Latina, and she was third understudy to Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin. Alicia has been hired without checking her origins, because that would be discriminatory.

Problems keep arising for Logan who is in a serious predicament, because if she doesn’t get a Native American, she fears she will get fired or lose grant money. Logan decides to improvise this play and tries to find a way without offending somebody. With all the improvisations, there is no easy solution; hence the conundrum that “woke” has generated. The fun in the play is how to arrive to a reasonable solution, and it’s a dilly.

Director Rachel Chavkin has done a great job in keeping the play moving at a frantic pace, therein lies the humor. She has her cast on their feet and no one comes off better than the outstanding D’Arcy Carden as Alicia, for she embodies the beautiful vapid Hollywood actress that believes she doesn’t have to do anything but just be. She is perfection. The inimitable Katie Finneran is her usual great, energetic self as the uptight director trying her best to commit to a non-offensive production. Scott Foley and Chris Sullivan are ideal foils for these polar opposite women.

The pleasure here is how Ms. FastHorse has illustrated how “woke” has gotten a stranglehold on the theatre. Her Thanksgiving play is a thought-provoking metaphor for how far “woke” and political correctness can and has permeated American culture.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 27, 2023
Reviewed at April 26, 2023 press performance.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: Katie Finneran. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: Scott Foley & Katie Finneran. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: Chris Sullivan & Scott Foley. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: D’Arcy Carden. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: D’Arcy Carden, Scott Foley & Chris Sullivan. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: Katie Finneran. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: Chris Sullivan. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘THE THANKSGIVING PLAY’: Scott Foley. Photo: Joan Marcus.

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‘HADESTOWN’: Reeve Carney & Eva Noblezada. Photo: Matthew Murphy

HADESTOWN
Book, music & lyrics by Anais Mitchell
Directed by George C. Wolfe
Choreographed by David Neumann
Walter Kerr Theatre
219 West 485th Street
212-239-6200, www.hadestown.com

By David NouNou

Although it has come late in the season, we have the winner for best musical. Hadestown is a towering theatrical journey to hell. It’s sort of a metaphor for the times in which we live.

Based on the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, and his journey to hell to rescue her back from the dead, this tale is set in New Orleans. Our Orpheus (Reeve Carney) is the sweetest and gentlest of souls who works in a café and Eurydice (Eva Noblezada) is a wandering waif who crosses Orpheus’ path and he falls madly in love with her. To narrate all that happens or will happen is Hermes (the remarkable Andre DeShields). He is like the emcee in Cabaret.

The rulers of Hadestown are Hades (Patrick Page) and Persephone (Amber Gray). Persephone comes up and joins the living every summer. She has a wild time entertaining all by wining and dining but has to return to Hades back in the winter. Eurydice being poor, cold and hungry goes down with Persephone on the false illusion that life will be better down there, only to find the grind and misery that prevails.

There are also the muses who butt into everyone’s lives and not for the good. It is up to Orpheus upon realizing the loss of Eurydice, on how he is going down to Hadestown and how he will rescue her from the grip of Hades.

What makes this journey bearable is the remarkable score by Anais Mitchell. It is jazz- infused, rhythmic, pulsating and palpable. From the opening song “Road to Hell” to the closing number in Act I, “Why We Build the Wall,” the music and lyrics are all arresting and haunting. “Why We Build the Wall” is a chilling reminder of where we’re at in 2019, but in actually it was written years before the ongoing nightmare we live with today. The score is phenomenal throughout till the end, the reprise of “Road to Hell.”

The cast is superb, headed by the indefatigable Andre DeShields, a theater legend. His Hermes is the velvet protector of the lost. Patrick Page is spine chilling as Hades, especially when it comes to singing “Why We Build the Wall.” Amber Gray’s Persephone is sheer delight and can lure anyone to go down to Hades with her. Eva Noblezada was enchanting in the 2017 revival of Miss Saigon, and she is in good voice here. Reeve Carney is guileless as Orpheus.

Director Rachel Chavkin has outdone herself here. Her Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 overloaded the senses to distraction, but here she has brilliantly modulated the proceedings and is greatly abetted by the overwhelming set by Rachel Hauck.

The nightmarish story is not necessarily uplifting, but the theatrical experience is priceless.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 22, 2019
Reviewed at April 21, 2019 press performance.

‘HADESTOWN’: Amber Gray & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘HADESTOWN’: Eva Noblezada & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘HADESTOWN’: (left to right) Amber Gray, Patrick Page & Reeve Carney. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘HADESTOWN’: Eva Noblezada & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘HADESTOWN’: Amber Gray & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘HADESTOWN’: Patrick Page & Amber Gray. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘HADESTOWN’: Reeve Carney. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘HADESTOWN’: (left to right) Jewelle Blackman, Kay Trinidad & Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘HADESTOWN’: Andre De Shields. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘HADESTOWN’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

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