Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

One of the great things about a revival is that you get to revisit and, if you're lucky, reimagine a classic. British director Simon Godwin had the idea of getting an American take on Anton Chekhov 's notable work, and enlisted the help of Tony Award winning playwright Stephen Karam ( The Humans ). Together (and with the aid of a more diverse cast than most productions of The Cherry Orchard ), they put an American spin on the Russian staple, making it vital and relevant. (Oh, and funny. People don't often think of Chekhov as funny, but he is, even more so as interpreted by Karam.) As stated in my review of the CSC production of The Cherry Orchard , which starred John Turturro and Dianne Wiest, the plot revolves around Lyubov ( Diane Lane ). She and her brother, Leonid ( John Glover , whose clowning and slapstick is just right for the role), live beyond their means, and are faced with the prospect of selling their estate, the estate on which they grew up and which i...

Stephen Karam 's play is so perfectly titled. The Humans is a deceivingly simple title, two seemingly innocuous words, but as humans, we know that there's much more—complexities, universal truths, timeless family dynamics—to simply being a human, and over the course of one Thanksgiving dinner, Karam delves into them all. Brigid ( Sarah Steele ) and her (older) boyfriend, Richard ( Arian Moayed ), are hosting Brigid's family for Thanksgiving in their new downtown Manhattan duplex. Brigid's sister, Aimee ( Cassie Beck ), recently got out of a long-term relationship with her girlfriend; Brigid's parents, Erik and Deidre ( Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell , respectively), are being parents, worrying about their daughters, while dealing with their own stresses, including taking care of Erik's mother, lovingly referred to as Momo ( Lauren Klein ), who is in the beginning stages of dementia. Playing out in real time, The Humans allows us to, essentially, be f...