Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie Award winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (An Octoroon) and Drama Desk Award winner Lila Neugebauer (The Waverly Gallery, 2ST’s Mary Page Marlowe) invite you to one helluva reunion in the darkly comic American family drama, APPROPRIATE.
It’s summer, the cicadas are singing, and the Lafayette family has returned to their late patriarch’s Arkansas home to deal with the remains of his estate. Toni (Paulson), the eldest daughter, hopes they’ll spend the weekend remembering and reconnecting over their beloved father. Bo, her brother, wants to recoup some of the funds he spent caring for Dad at the end of his life. But things take a turn when their estranged brother, Franz, appears late one night, and mysterious objects are discovered among the clutter. Suddenly, long-hidden secrets and buried resentments can’t be contained, and the family is forced to face the ghosts of their past.
Director Lila Neugebauer carefully threads the complexities of grief and racism with humor and lightness. The characters lob sharp-tongued dialogue (and a few punches) at one another. It’s a thrilling match.
The incisiveness of Lila Neugebauer’s marvelous direction is most evident in her control of those three principals. Playing the eldest sibling, the archetypal older sister-caretaker of the family, Sarah Paulson is very alpha here. Pissed-off to the extreme, her Toni can’t take one more infraction from her two younger brothers (Corey Stoll and Michael Esper), and lets them and her sister-in-law, Rachel (Natalie Gold) know it in no uncertain and very loud terms. Paulson manages to find nuance in her almost nonstop screeching.
General Rush:
Price: $45
Where: Belasco Theatre box office
When: When the box office opens on the day of the performance.
Limit: Two per customer.
Information: Subject to daily availability. The box office opens Tuesday through Saturday at 10 AM ET and Sunday at 12 PM ET.
Digital Lottery:
Price: $45
Where: rush.telecharge.com
When: 12 AM ET, one day before the performance.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Tickets are subject to availability. Seats may be partial view. Winners will be drawn that same morning at 10 AM ET and then later that afternoon at 3 PM ET.
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