Far from Heaven
The musical adaptation of Todd Haynes’s film Far from Heaven , now playing at Playwrights Horizons, is a faithful adaptation of the movie, which is sort of neither here nor there in terms of my taste. I passively liked the film and making it a musical doesn’t do it any favors, despite my expectations and proclamations of support before I saw it. Far from Heaven (you might remember the 2002 film, which starred Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert) centers on Cathy (Kelli O’Hara), a picture perfect housewife in Hartford, Connecticut, circa 1957. She’s married to successful businessman Frank (Steven Pasquale) and they have the requisite two children. Cathy’s life becomes unsettled when she discovers Frank is a homosexual, and, even more scandalous in her gossipy town, when she befriends her black gardener, Raymond (Isaiah Johnson), who has taken over the family business after the passing of his father. When anticipating the musical, directed by the terrific Mi...