Review Roundup: Sherie Rene Scott's WHORL INSIDE A LOOP Opens Off-Broadway

Second Stage Theatre presents the world premiere production of Whorl Inside a Loop, a new play by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott, co-directed by Michael Mayer and Mr. Scanlan. Whorl Inside a Loop began performances on August 4 and officially opens tonight, August 27, 2015 at Second Stage Theatre's Tony Kiser Theatre (305 West 43rd street).

Sherie Rene Scott will be joined by Derrick Baskin (...Spelling Bee), Nicholas Christopher (Motown),Chris Myers (An Octoroon), Ryan Quinn (King Lear), Daniel J. Watts (In the Heights), and Donald Webber, Jr. (Motown).

A well-regarded actress agrees to teach six inmates how to tell their stories behind the bars of a men's maximum security prison. Sharing intimate and sometimes hilarious details of their former lives, this unlikely group forms a bond -- even as the actress' life outside spins out of control. And when what happens in prison doesn't stay there, no one is sure who to trust.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Charles Isherwood, The New York Times: As the show's creators well know, the drama here is not primarily in the interactions between the Volunteer and her students or her coterie of friends -- which are often funny but hardly momentous -- but in the dark trajectories of the men's lives that are revealed as she leads them to turn their experiences into shapely monologues. Their hard upbringings, the unhappy circumstances that led them into crime, the sometimes scandalously long sentences they received: These histories make for riveting, disturbing theater, and as recounted by the superb cast, they open windows into the lives of men whose stories mostly go untold, except in investigative journalism...The play raises timely issues about the overwhelming number of African-American men in prison; the importance of rehabilitation, as opposed to plain punishment; and the imperfect workings of the justice system...Vivid writing and superlative performances effectively humanize each of the prisoners.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter: Unfortunately, and more than a little ironically, the prisoners get short shrift in this piece, which muddles its serious themes in self-conscious, artificial theatricality...despite their presenting [The Volunteer] as a figure whose less-than-noble actions are revealed late in the game, there's still an undeniable air of self-absorption on display...With both the writing and acting often lurching into caricature, the play unfortunately trivializes its important subject matter, inevitably putting the focus more on Scott's self-involved character than the inmates. When they do get brief opportunities to tell their stories the evening comes to life...But for every wrenching monologue, there's a cheap running gag...As always, Scott is an appealing performer and a natural comedienne, and the actors (Derrick Baskin, Nicholas Christopher, Chris Myers, Ryan Quinn, Daniel J. Watts, Donald Webber Jr.), at least when playing the prisoners, are powerfully effective. It's a shame, then, that Whorl Inside a Loop too often seems to be spinning its own wheels.

Diane Snyder, Time Out NY: Scott's character, the Volunteer, has her own troubled past. Soon she's helping the men find their voices -- and appropriating their experiences for her next show. As this plays out, the authors examine the line between selflessness and self-interest, and the similarities between those inside and outside prison walls. The title is a type of fingerprint, said to signify certain extreme attributes, that the Volunteer shares with one of the convicts. It's the inmates' stories that have the most resonance, however...As racial inequality continues to make headlines, Whorl is a timely reminder of the precarious nature of justice.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News: It's captivating and packs a punch. And it's cartoonish and loses its grip. As in her terrific musical memoir "Everyday Rapture," Scott mines her life and liberally fudges. You can't always be sure what she and co-author Dick Scanlan, who directs with Michael Mayer, fabricate completely...Inmates are played with grit and humor by Derrick Baskin, Nicholas Christopher, Chris Myers, Ryan Quinn, Daniel J. Watts and Donald Webber Jr. The stories of drugs, violence and repentance shake you. So it's all the more unsettling that the Volunteer, flighty and unlikable as played by Scott, betrays her students...In the end, the play underlines that a personal narrative is just that -- personal. That matters when it comes to who gets to tell it, and how. The point is valid -- and criminally obvious.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post: As fine and funny as "Whorl Inside a Loop" often is, the best thing about it is its cast -- there hasn't been such a dynamite ensemble of African-American actors since "The Wire." Not only that, but the play's six guys juggle various parts, sometimes of a different gender or race. Mostly they play the inmates of a maximum-security prison, who are taking a writing class taught by an actress they call the Volunteer. That she's played by Sherie Rene Scott...adds a measure of ditzy comedy to the potentially grim material..."Whorl" makes it clear the Volunteer is no savior: It's storytelling itself that helps the inmates. And it doesn't come easily. Source (Ryan Quinn) believes that while writing about his past bad behavior is about "taking responsibility," reenacting it "feels like glorifying it."

Jeremy Gerard, Deadline: Sherie Rene Scott is beautiful, blond and busty, an inspired comic actress with an air of practiced innocence that makes her not only irresistible but also believable -- a dangerous thing for an artist with larceny on her mind. In her new play, Whorl Inside a Loop...she plays The Volunteer, an inspired, etc., comic actress sent to a maximum security prison to conduct 12 weekly workshops with hardened murderers who want to tell their stories...The Volunteer, who seems remarkably similar to Sherie Rene Scott -- same winsome, self-deflating sense of humor, same brash sexiness, same to-the-manner born stage grace -- defeats her fear of being in a room with six killers...Their stories overcome her like a mist of truth or compassion. She rocks to their rhythms. She gets them...The Volunteer has a secret of her own, one that makes us wonder whether she really is Sherie Rene Scott and, more important, whether we like her, whoever she is, as much as we thought we did. But that's one more reason to have been entranced by this twisty work, performed with surprisingly deep eloquent power at Second Stage.

Matt Windman, AM New York: "Whorl Inside a Loop" had the potential to be an important play. But in its current state at Off-Broadway's Second Stage, it is a mess -- though a very interesting mess, full of some striking moments, a smart overall concept and bitter commentary on race and gender...Scott is terrific as the unsure, awkward and self-absorbed protagonist, and is joined by a fine supporting cast including Derrick Baskin as a sensitive prisoner. Running 100 minutes without an intermission, the play resembles the theatrical exercises that it spotlights, built upon an improvisational air. Some of the material sticks, but much of it doesn't. The prisoners' sober and dense monologues clash with the comic business. It needs -- and merits -- further development.

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Photo Credit: Joan Marcus