‘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.

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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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ESTRANGED EX-SPOUSES: Ulysses (Nick Offerman) & ex-wife Emma (Megan Mullally) in Sharr White’s ‘Annapurna.’ Photo: Monique Carboni

ANNAPURNA
Written by Sharr White
Directed by Bart DeLorenzo
Through June 1, 2014
The New Group at Theatre Row
Acorn Theatre
410 West 42nd Street, www.newgroup.org

By Scott Harrah

Just how much are we willing to forgive someone who has damaged us, either emotionally or physically, when we learn he or she is dying?  Or confront a person, face to face, so he/she understands the complexity and magnitude of an unspeakable act of violence years later? These heavy questions are posed in Sharr White’s dark, provocative new one act, starring real-life husband and wife Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”) and Nick Offerman (of “Parks and Recreation” fame).

Annapurna is something of a departure for playwright Sharr White, author of such recent Broadway dramas as The Snow Geese and The Other Place, two tales set in upper-class surroundings. The narrative and structure are also superior to his earlier efforts, and the characters and dialogue more emotionally formidable and true to life. Here, everything takes place in a ramshackle, one-room trailer (brilliantly designed by Thomas A. Walsh) in rural Paonia, Colorado, with a view of the Rockies.  Ulysses (Mr. Offerman) is a not-so-successful poet and former college professor, hooked up to an oxygen tank because he’s suffering from emphysema and lung cancer, living his final days in squalor with a smelly old dog. His ex-wife, Emma (Ms. Mullally) returns, suitcase and money in hand, for a visit 20 years after she and their son left him. It is the reason why she’s back that is the mystery for the rest of the show, as Emma cleans her ex-husband’s filthy trailer, buys groceries and talks vaguely about the wreckage of their failed marriage and what happened to their son (now in his 20s) when he was five years old.

Anyone expecting to see Ms. Mullally do a variation of her Karen Walker character from “Will & Grace” will be disappointed because, although she maintains some of that iconic TV character’s whiny intonations, nothing here is amusing enough to call this a comedy. Granted, Emma and Ulysses indulge in some awkward repartee in the opening scenes of the play, when Ulysses walks around nearly naked and asks his ex-wife what she’s doing in Paonia, the “ass-crack of the Rockies”. In the first third of the play, even when Ms. Mullally’s character shouts, there are traces of the high-pitched, lilting “Karen Walker” voice, but it soon fades.  As the story progresses and the twists get bleaker and more solemn, the acting from both Ms. Mullally and Mr. Offerman is consistently first rate.

Annapurna is a somewhat depressing 95 minutes, but it is thoroughly engrossing and there is dynamic raillery and tension between Emma and Ulysses.  There are shades of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in the many excoriating arguments and banter between the two exes, and the volatile love-hate relationship they still have, but Mr. White’s dialogue is never rhythmic or symbolic. After all, Ulysses is supposed to be a cowboy at heart, and Emma has been living humbly after a bad marriage back East.

Mr. White’s script is full of talk about love, death and hate, but the dialogue and revelations never delve into the maudlin.  Director Bart DeLorenzo has little to do here, because the onstage chemistry between Mr. Offerman and Ms. Mullally is so natural and palpable.  Since both portrayals are so solid, we easily overlook any shortcomings in the narrative.  There is an especially haunting sincerity in Mr. Offerman’s understated but powerful performance, perhaps due to the fact that the two are married in real life, thus enhancing the energy they share here.

CLEANING THE DEBRIS OF A FAILED MARRIAGE: Nick Offerman as Ulysses & Megan Mullally as Emma in Sharr White’s ‘Annapurna.’ Photo: Monique Carboni

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 21, 2014
Reviewed at press performance April 20, 2014

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