Conversations With Mother Off-Broadway Reviews

Mr. Lombardo’s latest play, “Conversations with Mother,” was inspired by a woman who’s less widely known, though it surely required less research on the part of the playwright, her son. This one-act, semi-autobiographical play introduces us to Bobby Collavechio, also a playwright, whom we meet as an adolescent and follow into middle age, and Maria Collavechio, his aggressively loving Catholic mother.

It’s a long, wintry walk to Theater 555 from the nearest heated subway, but it’s worth the warmth playwright Matthew Lombardo’s Conversations With Mother has to offer. Directed by Noah Himmelstein, the play is tactful, personal, and precise while hitting the sweet spots of relatability.

Directed by Noah Himmelstein with deceptive simplicity, it’s all richly dramatic but also loaded with laughter as the two characters spar with each other in that affectionate way mothers and sons tend to do. The individual scenes are titled with motherly expressions such as “Tell Me The Truth and I Won’t Get Mad” and “Why Can’t You Ever Meet a Nice Boy.” At one point, Maria fears that Bobby has “the AIDS” as she puts it. And when Bobby finally gets a job at The Meat Hook, a gay bar, Maria asks if it’s a delicatessen.

Conversations with Mother, Matthew Lombardo's semi-autobiographical comedy currently running at Theater 555, is a crowd-pleasing show that traces the relationship of a mother and son over five decades. Although the play is constructed for laughs, Lombardo touches on serious issues, such as drug addiction, domestic abuse, and gay sex during the height of the AIDS crisis. Its chief draw, however, stems from its repurposing of the comedic scenarios, sketches, rhythms, and bittersweet cultural observations by playwrights and performers like Neil Simon, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna. The result is a breezy, enjoyable two-hander that benefits from the natural rapport generated by its immensely appealing stars, Caroline Aaron and Matt Doyle.

Conversations with Mother is a laugh-out-loud funny, sharply insightful, and deeply touching tribute to the complex, close-knit, cherished connection between a parent and child – specifically here a mom and a gay son – which consummately delivers the over-riding message that Mother knows best, so listen to your mother; if Bobby did, it would have made his life so much easier.