Review: CRY IT OUT at MILDRED'S UMBRELLA

Sometimes, a play does what no other artistic medium can do. It can feel intimate, immediate, and alive. CRY IT OUT from MILDRED’S UMBRELLA is one of those living productions that feels like you are watching three real women deal with being a mother and looking at how that is going to affect every aspect of their lives. It’s a play that reminds me a lot of STEEL MAGNOLIAS, where you spend an hour and a half with a group of women, admiring their fight and laughing and crying with them, often in the same moment. This is what theater is designed to do, and it’s a wonderful slice of life that this cast and this production bring to the stage. CRY IT OUT is something you need to see whether you’re a parent, a woman, or… heck… just a human. I went in wondering what a story about three new moms would say to me and left with my answer; it showed me issues I never imagined and concerns I could sincerely relate to. 

---

CRY IT OUT is pretty simple in that it concentrates on three new moms who are all neighbors to each other in Long Island around 2017. Two of them become great friends, and a third challenges everyone’s perspective of being a “working mom.” There is one father in the show, and he seems to be in a desperate situation, wondering what to do like the three women. It’s a show about the helplessness you feel when you are a new parent and your world is turned upside down by a new family member. How does it change the dynamics of your relationships with others around you and profoundly impact your relationship with yourself? And how you second guess every decision you make because now you know you are making these choices that will impact you and this new person. 

Whitney Zangarine plays Jessie, a new mother with a daughter who is a high-powered corporate attorney whose husband wants to preserve their upper-middle-class life of social climbing and prestige. Whitney anchors the show with a prim and proper veneer that slides deliciously off-kilter once she meets and becomes friends with Lina, who the hysterical Chaney Moore brings to life. Lina is of meager means, an ex-drug addict, and has a son. She is economically more desperate than Jessie but seems way more sure of herself as a wife and a mother in her new world. The third new mother is the elusive Adrienne, portrayed by Sammi Sicinski, who is a famous jewelry designer with wealth and a thriving career that is peaking right after she has had her baby. All three women have to confront what it means to be a mom, have a career, and deal with family dynamics that come with their social and economic standings. Rounding out the cast is Mitchell, who Jason Duga renders, and he is the husband of Adrienne, the jewelry maven. 

It all sounds so much heavier than it really is because the script by Molly Smith Metzler is probably one of the funniest things I have seen this year. That is what is so special about CRY IT OUT, I laughed as much as I felt deep emotions, and that’s rare that a play can manage that with such grace. It’s a testimony to these three actresses and the singular actor that they can hit all the punchlines and also nail the extreme emotions that ride along with the narrative. Director Rhett Martinez really goes for broke in creating a perfectly paced piece that thrives in a very intimate space. He creates a world that feels so truthful and honest. MILDRED’S UMBRELLA has produced this in a tiny theater that is normally used for CONEMAN RUNNING on the second floor of the Spring Street Galleries. It makes the show so much more familiar with the audience to be within inches of this whole thing. Edgar Guajardo delivers a wonderful setting that could exist between any two houses, and Donna Southern Schmidt’s costumes are as honest and grounded as they need to be. 

Whitney Zangerine leads the cast with a look eerily reminiscent of a young Julianne Moore. She captures so much emotion and is a master of going from one to the other in rapid-fire, which is accurate for any woman who is a new mother. She holds the narrative arc gracefully. Chaney Moore is so hysterical and authentically Long Island that you have a hard time picturing her as anything but the amazing Lina. She knows how to hit a beat, deliver a joke, and anchor a character. Sammi Sicinski gets one of the hardest jobs of the evening because Adrienne represents something that is harder to swallow, but she navigates it without a pause. And Jason Duga is so strikingly lovable from the start, and he makes for a wonderful father who is as lost as the women around him. 

I truly loved this play and admired how invested I became so easily with this cast. CRY IT OUT reminded me that I actually do have common ground with people who are in a situation I will never be in because, as a childless man in his fifties, the odds are astronomically slim that I will give birth anytime soon. The wonder is that this script, these actors, and this production make you see what the struggles are and how much weighs on a new mom. It eloquently paints three versions of what can happen when a baby throws your world just a bit. I definitely recommend this one for everybody who has a mom. 

CRY IT OUT PLAYS at the SPRING STREET STUDIOS until September 28th. Given the space's size, you should acquire tickets before heading out to catch a performance. MILDRED’S UMBRELLA has pay-what-you-can pricing, and the venue is general open seating. The show is approximately ninety minutes without an intermission.

To post a comment, you must register and login.