Holland Taylor and Ana Villafañe return to the stage as two congresswomen, generations apart in this new play about power, politics, and the perilous path to progress. N/A is a whip smart battle of wills -- and wits – between N, the first woman Speaker of the House, and A, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Inspired by real people and events, this riveting two-hander illuminates the person whom many consider the most powerful woman in American history…and the once-in-a-generation political talent who defied her.
N/A, by contrast, is like being stuck at dinner with a relative you wish would please talk about anything else (do N and A have any thoughts on the weather?). It’s claustrophobic, and ultimately boring; the structure traps the performers in limited caricatures. Holland Taylor specializes in playing toughened older women whether as a professor in Legally Blonde or Texas governor Ann Richards. She applies all her steel to N, throwing out one-liners with hefty torque: She can get a laugh just by pursing her lips and silently offering A a square of Ghirardelli chocolate in mid-conversation. That approach tends to chop Ana Villafañe, who plays A, right up. Villafañe’s done musicals (she was Gloria Estefan in On Your Feet!) and her angle on A turns the congresswoman into something of a flustered theater kid. I’m not sure that’s true of the actual AOC, who’s shown herself to be cannier and more of a deal-maker (at times, frustrating her own base) than the starry-eyed depiction you get here. But it’s hard to put the blame on the performer when she’s unsupported by the script, and from director Diane Paulus, who allows Taylor to showboat freely.
The play’s ideas and ideals are fine, and modestly if repetitively dramatized, but what makes this swift summer trifle so diverting is the embodiment of the women themselves. N and A are perfect incarnations of their congressional doppelgängers, down to Pelosi’s golden Mace of the United States House of Representatives brooch and A.O.C.’s signature “Beso” red lipstick. The gimmick also gives Holland Taylor (as N) and Ana Villafañe (as A) tasty roles and a meaty conflict to sink their teeth into.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Lincoln Center Theater Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
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