In this triumphant return to Broadway, Tony and Emmy Award winner John Lithgow dazzlingly conjures an entire cast of indelible characters - and The New York Times says the result is "superb, illuminating and uplifting." With honesty, humor and heart, he combines family memories and timeless tales into a one-of-a-kind event that New York magazine calls "pure entertainment." Don't miss John Lithgow as he elevates the magic of storytelling to masterful new heights. "Rarely have I spent so entertaining and touching a night at the theater." (The Wall Street Journal).
Daniel Sullivan directed this long-developing show, and it's fleet. But Lithgow isn't well served by the design. Kenneth Posner's lighting is harsh and unforgiving, and John Lee Beatty's set is clean but oddly monumentalist, overpowering a necessarily intimate exchange between performer and audience. As someone who loves the short story form, I know one reader's Wodehouse is another's I.L. Peretz, one reader's Cheever is another's Pynchon. Lithgow is deeply impressive in sharing two wildly different examples. I wasn't sold on the first, but he had me at Pongo.
This is ultimately a basic piece of theater that never really digs below its cozy, slightly drab surface. Each of the play's two acts is constructed as follows: one-third background from Lithgow, reminiscing on his childhood or the power of storytelling, and two-thirds his solo performance of a classic short story. The production is strikingly bare-bones - as if you've walked into a dusty study that's just been cleared out for a house move, with only a chair, small desk, and thick ol' storybook remaining. There is no flourish here. All eyes are meant to be on Lithgow as he loosely moves about, all ears on the tales he spins with vigor.
2008 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
2012 | US Tour |
US Tour |
2018 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Solo Performance | John Lithgow |
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