Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane lead an all-star cast featuring F. Murray Abraham, Stockard Channing, Megan Mullally and Micah Stock in the Broadway comedy about the comedy of Broadway: It's Only a Play. Written by four-time Tony winner Terrence McNally and directed by three-time Tony winner Jack O'Brien, this is a celebration of theatre at its best- and theatre people behaving their not-so-best.
It's opening night of Peter Austin's (Matthew Broderick) new play as he anxiously awaits to see if his show is a hit. With his career on the line, he shares his big First Night with his best friend, a television star (Nathan Lane), his fledgling producer (Megan Mullally), his erratic leading lady (Stockard Channing), his wunderkind director, an infamous drama critic (F. Murray Abraham) and a fresh-off-the-bus coat check attendant (Micah Stock in his Broadway debut).
It's alternately raucous, ridiculous and tender- reminding audiences why there's no business like show business. Thank God!
If the entire dream cast of Terrence McNally's backstage revenge play had less than split-millisecond timing, the merciless inside-showbiz observations about the theater and theaterfolk might wound deeper than they amuse. Instead, McNally's major update and overhaul of his 1985 work is likely to remind the gleefully unrepentant among us of Alice Roosevelt Longworth's quote that, more or less, said, 'If you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me....Lane revels in the ego and insecurity of the actor with the TV series who turned down a part written for him by his playwright-buddy, underplayed with deft earnestness and panic by Broderick, the comedy's straight man. Channing is delicious as an aging star with drug issues and a parolee's ankle bracelet. Mullally has a dumb-smart way with malaprops as the eager fledgling producer. Grint -- all spiked red hair and raccoon eyes -- is perfectly bratty as the British directing genius, while Abraham skulks creepily around as a vicious critic with an agenda...As long as they're not up there laughing at you, however, this is the rare Broadway comedy that's as smart as it is funny.
Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick made magic and a megahit together in 'The Producers'...Now the Great White Way's dynamic duo is back on stage...The reunion is wildly hit and miss -- Lane is the hit, while Broderick is the, well, you know....Wicker is custom-tailored for what Lane does best. Catty one-liners? Check. Sly slow burns? Check. High-spirited howls? Check. Lane makes the familiar fresh and delivers gusts of laughing gas. Meanwhile, Broderick drains the air and momentum as playwright Peter Austin, Wicker's BFF...What's lacking are surprises. Characters get one dimension apiece...Completing the cast is Micah Stock, a Broadway rookie who more than holds his own as a simpleton coat check with the gift of ingratiation. One reason he makes such an impression is that he shows up on Broadway without any baggage -- so the audience gets the joy of discovering a new talent making his major stage debut. Besides good old dependable Nathan Lane, this diversion has good timing going for it. People are desperate for laughs and comedies on Broadway are bloody rare. If only McNally's 'Play' was more well-done.
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