Quick Review: 'Last Easter'

A levelheaded professional woman rents a house with her three best friends: a wisecracking gay man, a ditz and an oversexed party girl. This may sound like yet another copycat sitcom, but it's actually the premise of Last Easter, Bryony Lavery's emotional rollercoaster of a play that mixes ruminations on faith, love and death with quips about ER and shout-outs to Caravaggio and Judy Garland. June, a lighting designer, is the rock in this group of Londoners, but her breast cancer has metastasized, so pals Leah, Gash and Joy—who all work in theater too—take her to Lourdes for a dunking in the holy waters. A year later, still suffering, June asks them to help her end her life.

You may be surprised by all the laughs (and singing) in this tale of people whose livelihood is make-believe getting forced to deal with the harshest of realities. You may also be surprised that this impassioned play comes from the same playwright as Frozen, last season's stark drama revolving around a child's murder. The subject matter is somber here also, but Last Easter brims with humor and vivacity that were absent from Frozen. Whereas Frozen's lack of interaction between characters (most of the scenes were monologues) was distancing,

Last Easter draws you right in to the quirks and dispositions of its high-spirited, slightly caricaturish personalities. And what a difference in sets! Frozen's was virtually nonexistent, while propmaker Leah's exhaustively stocked workshop provides the backdrop for Last Easter, with drag queen Gash's dressing room rendered in detail stage left. (Last Easter has the same design team—including set designer Hugh Landwehr—and the same director, Doug Hughes, and producer, MCC Theater, as Frozen did.)

Both the story and storytelling are much more engaging in Last Easter, but like Frozen it is carried by a crackerjack ensemble. Jeffrey Carlson is absolutely fabulous as fast-talking, joke-telling, promiscuous Gash; Florencia Lozano is Absolutely Fabulous as soused actress Joy. TV regular Clea Lewis finds a good fit for her childlike voice and mannerism in Leah. As June, Veanne Cox makes a chillingly real segue from trying to rationally confront mortality to despondently battling the pain. Through its multitude of moods and themes, this sensitive, stirring play honors the terminally ill and their caretakers, the power of art and the camaraderie among those who create it, life's force and death's peace.

Through October 23 at Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St.; 212-279-4200, www.mcctheater.org for tickets & information.