Sam doesn’t get out much. Actually, he doesn’t get out at all, opting instead for the safety of his house in the company of his things—his many, many things. But when a notice from the government arrives alerting Sam that he must clean up his property or face eviction, he’s forced to reckon with what’s trash, what’s treasure, and whether we can ever know the difference between the two.
Danny DeVito returns to Roundabout Theatre Company in I Need That, starring alongside his daughter, Lucy DeVito, and Ray Anthony Thomas in a deeply human new comedy from playwright Theresa Rebeck and director Moritz von Stuelpnagel, the team behind Bernhardt/Hamlet.
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel—who helmed Rebeck’s 2018 backstage drama Bernhardt/Hamlet, also at the Roundabout—I Need That runs only 100 intermission-free minutes, but somehow feels padded. Perhaps in an effort to avoid turning the play into The Danny DeVito Show, Rebeck gives Foster and Amelia a few crises and obstacles, most of which feel contrived. Foster going to Cleveland to live right near his son and grandkids, however, does make sense, and it gives rise to Sam’s brilliant one-liner: “Ohio is the source of all disappointment and grief in America.” (If that had been on a T-shirt in the lobby, I would have bought three of them.) There’s so much substance on stage, literally—Alexander Dodge’s set is a brilliant testament to the pure emotional power of material goods; less so in the script. Sorry!
To match the living circumstances of its lead character, the play feels a deflating mess, with puzzling performances and staging as if no one involved quite knows what it is—comedy, whimsy, or low-key tragedy? Of course, a play can be all those things, but I Need That jerks uneasily around many registers, never finding its heart, or dramatic or thematic purpose. The play is as muddled as Sam’s home, with characters not really speaking to each other. It grouches along, just as Sam and Foster mull the world around them, but—thanks to so many similar stories and characters on TV and film—we know where this is headed
Digital Rush
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2023 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2024 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance | Danny DeVito |
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