“It is a statement I’d like to read to the council. When Breeding suggests that it is not the right time for her to read her statement, Innes declines to wait. Peel regularly corrects the others for strange mispronunciations “I’m not sure you’re saying that right,” he tells several of the others, but they ignore him as he learns that both what they say and how they say it just doesn’t matter. The often surreal conversations reveal the utter hypocrisy and endless nonsense underlying it all as the characters pretend to discuss the underrepresented and argue over nomenclature. Letts nails the constant frustration of government as the council goes about its activities, which are filled with personal and financial interest and a complete lack of care for the public good. In addition, the show replaced the original Peel, scandal-ridden Armie Hammer, with Reid, making his splendid Broadway debut as an idealist who believes that he and the council can really make a difference. It now feels up to the moment as the play turns toward such controversies as whitewashing history, the validity of monuments, colonialism, and cultural appropriation. Letts, who has written such previously plays as Mary Page Marlowe and Man from Nebraska and starred on Broadway in such classics as All My Sons and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, tweaked The Minutes, which debuted at Steppenwolf in 2017, during the pandemic the play had just begun previews at the Cort in March 2020 when Broadway closed down. However, getting to the bottom of things is not going to be easy, but as secrets are revealed, bit by bit, a clearer picture of what went on the prior week starts coming into focus, a stark portrait of where America is today in 2022, where facts are just another opinion. It’s clear that something bad happened that the others have decided to bury, so he attempts to rectify it. When Superba skips over the reading of the minutes from the prior week, Peel pushes back, determined that the rules of order be followed and the information be made available. Peel is intent on finding out why Carp is no longer part of the council, but no one is sharing any details. Peel (Noah Reid) shares his issues with Johnson (Jessie Mueller) in sharp Tracy Letts satire (photo by Jeremy Daniel) Innes wants to read into the record a statement about the Big Cherry Heritage Festival. Blake is pushing his Lincoln Smackdown idea. Hanratty is looking for support for his accessible public fountain restoration project, which will be highlighted by a bronze statue of a local war hero. “I’m sure you’ll learn what you need to know,” Johnson tells him before things get underway. Carp’s (Ian Barford) space at the table is empty and no one will tell him why. But he is taken aback when he sees that Mr.
Peel (Noah Reid), has returned to the chambers after having attended his mother’s funeral he arrives like it’s the first day of school, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The newest councilmember, the fresh-faced Mr. Johnson (Jessie Mueller) is the niece trying to keep the family together. Todd Freeman) is the oddball uncle unable to make decisions for himself, and administrative assistant Ms. Hanratty (Danny McCarthy) is the good-natured but misguided uncle, Mr. Assalone (Jeff Still) is the unscrupulous older brother, Mr. Breeding (Cliff Chamberlain) is the snooty, privilege-flaunting younger brother, Mr. Matz (Sally Murphy) is the disheveled, ditzy sister, Mr. Innes (Blair Brown) is the Dianne Feinstein–like matronly grandmother, Mr. Oldfield (a riotous Austin Pendleton) is the curmudgeony, doddering grandfather, Ms. The ninety-minute play takes place at a city council meeting, where the members are arranged in a semicircle they are like a dysfunctional family with Superba at the head of the table. Letts, who won the Pulitzer Prize for August Osage Country, which deals with a dysfunctional family and a missing patriarch in Oklahoma, now turns his razor-sharp pencil - which the character he portrays, Mayor Superba, actually sharpens during The Minutes - on the small Midwest town of Big Cherry, where truth appears to be a Kafka-like concept. Tracy Letts skewers tribal politics and political correctness in the cancel culture age in his acerbic black comedy The Minutes, running on Broadway at Studio 54 through July 24. Tuesday – Sunday through July 24, $39-$249 Assalone (Jeff Still), Superba (playwright Tracy Letts), and Breeding (Cliff Chamberlain) form a decidedly white triumvirate in The Minutes (photo by Jeremy Daniel)Ģ54 West 54th St.
0 kommentar(er)
