Roundabout Theatre Company presents the Broadway premiere of Marvin’s Room, Scott McPherson's award-winning, wildly funny play about the laughter that can shine through life’s darkest moments. Anne Kauffman (Marjorie Prime, Maple and Vine) directs.
Lee is a single mother who's been busy raising her troubled teenage son, Hank. Her estranged sister Bessie has her hands full with their elderly father, his soap opera-obsessed sister - and a brand-new life-or-death diagnosis. Now the women are about to reunite for the first time in 18 years. Are Lee's good intentions and makeover skills enough to make up for her long absence? Can Bessie help Hank finally feel at home somewhere... or at least keep him from burning her house down? Can these almost-strangers become a family in time to make plans, make amends, and maybe make a trip to Disney World?
Exploring an unsentimental reality with hope, compassion and a dose of wonderfully absurd humor, Marvin's Room is a life-affirming reminder of the gift we give ourselves when we love unconditionally.
I particularly marveled at the way Taylor processed any bad news that comes Bessie's way. She segues briskly from shock to resilience, with the speed and force of a Gulf Coast storm, the way some people-lucky people-can do when faced with ill circumstances that are beyond their control. It's easy, as well, to empathize with Garofalo's chain-smoking Lee (the smoking, by the way, is the only indication 'Marvin's Room' is set some years ago). Hank's adolescent meltdowns have already pushed Lee to the brink, even before Bessie's diagnosis spurred this undesired trip from Ohio to Florida.
It's a good play. Honestly, it's a good play. No, I really mean it. This mantra, or something like it, is necessary to keep your faith in 'Marvin's Room,' the mordantly funny play about life and love and death that writer Scott McPherson lived to see premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theater in 1990, two years before he died of AIDS at the age of 33. Despite decent performances, this lugubrious Broadway revival directed by Anne Kauffman for the Roundabout does his dark comedy no favors.
1991 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
1992 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2017 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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