A timely and gripping Broadway premiere from Tony Award® nominee Dominique Morisseau (Ain’t Too Proud, Pipeline). In 2008 Detroit, a small automotive factory is on the brink of foreclosure, and a tight knit family of workers hangs in the balance. With uncertainty everywhere, the line between blue collar and white collar becomes blurred, and this working family must reckon with their personal loyalties, their instincts for survival and their ultimate hopes for humanity. The New York Times gives this astonishing work a Critic’s Pick and cheers, “A very fine new play… warm-blooded, astute, deeply moral and deeply American.” And The Amsterdam News hails it as “a prime example of how theatre imitates life… intense, touching and funny.” Directing is MTC’s Tony-winning Artistic Advisor Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Lackawanna Blues, August Wilson’s Jitney).
With the exception of casting, director Ruben Santiago-Hudson's production is virtually the same as the terrific one he helmed in 2016 at the Atlantic Theater Company. (Thankfully, he did bring back performer-choreographer Adesola Osakalumi, whose kinetic movement between scenes illustrates the constant, precision motion of the assembly line.) Rashad is fantastic as the 'tough as bricks' Faye, and Dirden-featured in Santiago-Hudson's gorgeous revivals of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson (2012) and Jitney (2016), not to mention in Detroit '67 (2013)-is simply spectacular as the buttoned-up Reggie.
The production, too, rests on Rashad's presence. Dirden is good (as he always is) at showing thought-in-action: You can see doubts shudder through his body even when his back is turned. The audience and the Friedman Theatre, though, need an operatic figure to focus all that space - and Rashad is it. Rashad's Faye wears baggy jeans and a shlumpy sweatshirt, and when she walks, she favors her back, like a woman who has done manual labor for a long time. But then, when Rashad turns her head suddenly, she looks like a queen. At its root, Skeleton Crew is about finding dignity - both in work and in the relationships between people - and it's useful, therefore, to have a person onstage who can gather majesty around her like a shawl. Rashad might seem to stop being Faye in these moments, but it doesn't break the show. She takes on the spirit of the underlying play, becoming something like the personification of labor itself. She turns into something larger and more commanding than the merely individual drama around her, and all of Broadway turns to look.
2022 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Brandon J. Dirden |
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Phylicia Rashad |
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Joshua Boone |
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Skeleton Crew |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Awards | Phylicia Rashad |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Skeleton Crew |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Ruben Santiago-Hudson |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Brandon J. Dirden |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Chanté Adams |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Phylicia Rashad |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | Skeleton Crew |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Phylicia Rashad |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Skeleton Crew |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Michael Carnahan |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Nicholas Hussong |
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