| My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | jesse21 09:19 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| - That awkward period between adolescence and adulthood is fully captured in Ana D. Shapiro’s revival of Kenneth Lonergan’s highly-regarded Gen X play of 1996: This Is Our Youth. Mr. Lonergan, a native New Yorker, set “Youth” in 1982, the year he turned twenty, which helps explain why the verisimilitude of his play and its similarly-aged characters is so dramatically potent. He and the play are making their Broadway debuts tonight at the Cort Theatre. The action takes place in the Upper West Side brownstone studio apartment of Dennis Ziegler (Kieran Culkin) for which his affluent parents willingly pay the rent to keep him at arm’s length. He earns spending money dealing drugs to his circle of acquaintances. Dennis is a fast talker and a smooth operator, but he is also directionless. In comes buddy Warren Straub (Michael Cera) who is the polar opposite: fumbling and withdrawn, a pre computer-age nerd. He, on the other hand, lives unhappily at home with his divorced father, perhaps a shady businessman, and has just stolen dad’s briefcase containing $15,000 in cash. The play’s action humorously revolves around how the cash can be (or should not be) spent. But the quality of Mr. Lonergan’s play rests in his acutely observed characters and the manner in which two opposites are drawn to each other in wishing they shared certain of the other guy’s attributes. Also, the playwright slowly reveals where his privileged youth are coming from: how they are the product of homes where the successful careers of their parents shortchanged their upbringing and, even more so, how intimidating has been their fathers’ successes. If you’ve experienced the particular Manhattan milieu of the play, you’ll especially appreciate how spot on is the writing. The trappings of the early 1980s are there (vinyl records and bulky stereo equipment) as is the suggestion of a partially seedy and a bit dangerous New York. The play may not be the cautionary eye-opener for parents that it once was in its two previous Off Broadway productions. Yet the characters could exist similarly in today’s urban environment and, because of that, This Is Our Youth retains a topical interest. Will these youth have an epiphany that will move them beyond drugs, sex and aimlessness? Ah, that I won’t reveal. Director Shapiro, Tony winner for August: Osage County and director of last season’s successful Of Mice and Men revival, has elicited strong performances from three young actors making their Broadway debuts. Her staging was seen earlier this summer at Steppenwolf in Chicago. Kieran Culkin as the gregarious Dennis is the actor who has had extensive stage experience in general and particularly with this play beginning with a London production in 2002. That has paid off. His is a superb performance in which pain and uncertainly underline the bravado. Michael Cera, with the largest role as the timid Warren, is well cast or one might say type cast based on his film career to date. He does exude vulnerability and confusion as he provides a convincing foil to Mr. Culkin’s more robust performance. However, his Warren is much in the same manner as his hangdog portrayal of other characters on screen which leads one to suspect his range. This is not a two-hander though. There’s a young woman in a smaller role named Jessica, a pretty blond Warren has been eyeing but is too shy to ask on a date. Circumstances in the plot bring them together this time around. As Jessica, Tavi Gevinson, the fashion blogger, model and now novice actress, is directed very carefully by Ms. Shapiro, and she appears to be a natural at conveying conflicted emotions as she tries to break from her mother’s clutches into adulthood. This Is Our Youth is well worth a visit, especially for those who never saw the original production back in the 1990s. ★ ★ ★½ ☆ ☆ - Jesse SIDEBAR: “THIS IS OUR YOUTH” opens Thursday, September 11, 2014, at the Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th Street, New York City. Seen at a preview on Sept. 7. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission. On 9/7, started 3:08pm; ended 5:32pm. Act I: 1 hour, 11 minutes; Act II: 55 minutes. Limited engagement. Tickets currently on sale through January 4, 2015. Link to website. - | |
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| The first 9/11 opening night on B'way in a while? | |
| Posted by: | Delvino 09:25 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - jesse21 09:19 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I'm sure someone will fact check/slash/shout me down, but I don't recall a show opening on B'way on 9/11 in the past 13 years. I'm not quibbling, just wondering if it struck anyone else as a strange choice. In SF or Chicago, not as big a deal; on B'way in NYC, well, it's still a very somber day. I can't quite imagine the opening night and opening night party. Maybe I am quibbling after all. I just think there are other days, and yes, I know the value of a Thursday in September. | |
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| Yes, but probably not for any particular reason. | |
| Posted by: | keikekaze 09:40 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | The first 9/11 opening night on B'way in a while? - Delvino 09:25 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Early September has not been a crowded time for Broadway openings since the 1940s. The last time any Broadway show opened on Sept. 11 was in 1984. The last time a new play opened on Sept. 11 was in 1952. So I wouldn't think that they'd been particularly avoiding the date. There just aren't that many shows that seem to want to open that early in the season. | |
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| re: Yes, but probably not for any particular reason. | |
| Posted by: | Delvino 09:53 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | Yes, but probably not for any particular reason. - keikekaze 09:40 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| All the more reason to avoid it. | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - jesse21 09:19 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| "The action takes place in the Upper West Side brownstone studio apartment of Dennis Ziegler (Kieran Culkin) for which his affluent parents willingly pay the rent to keep him at arm’s length." Does it say in the published script that he lives in a brownstone? I didn't get that from the rather interesting set. After looking it at for a while, it seemed to me that we were supposed to think that he lives in the penthouse of the building that we see in the background. There's a smallish skylight. But perhaps you're right. Perhaps that's supposed to be a nearby building. I didn't realize that Culkin had appeared in the London production. Good for him that 12 years later he can still get away with it. I wonder if he played the same role in London. I could easily see him as Warren back then. Also kind of interesting is that he and Ruffalo appeared together in the troubled Lapine play The Moment When as Playwrights, which I remember feeling would have worked just fine if the Eugene Lee set had not been terribly misconceived. It seems that at Steppenwolf, this production was performed in the round. It was in their upstairs studio theatre, and what I've read online has said it was in the round. | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | ilw 08:51 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Culkin did play the other role (Warren) in the London production | |
| Link | This is Our Youth |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | BroadwayTonyJ 05:55 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| The Steppenwolf Upstairs gets re-configured to fit the needs of each particular production. For This Is Our Youth, the stage was a narrow strip running down the center of the theater with 7 rows of seats forming the north section and 8 rows of seats making up the south section -- so almost but not quite in the round. I was in about the 3rd row of the south section on 7/27 -- 299 seats total, so pretty intimate. Over the years they have done plays completely in the round, but off-hand I can't recall seeing any at the Upstairs. However, Nathan Allen's The Sparrow was presented completely in the round at Steppenwolf's even more intimate Garage Theater back in 2007. | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 06:23 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - BroadwayTonyJ 05:55 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Thanks for the more exact info. If you google this is our youth steppenwolf in the round, you will see that several articles and at least one review said that it was in the round at Steppenwolf. (Just explaining where I got the idea.) | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | BroadwayTonyJ 10:14 am EDT 09/12/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - AlanScott 06:23 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Interesting. I read some of the articles and reviews you cited. I'm surprised that Chris Jones would consider this production "in the round". The set contained a functioning bathroom (house left) and the door to Dennis' apartment (house right). There would normally be a block of seats in these 2 locations (according to the Upstairs Steppenwolf map) for a true in-the-round production. I generally thought that "in the round" meant that the audience was seated on all 4 sides of the performance space. | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | jesse21 05:45 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| - I inferred without confirmation that the studio apartment was on the top floor of a brownstone that had been carved up as a multi-unit dwelling. That's what it looked like to me. And I also inferred it was on a numbered side street with that background behind the main set representing typical 17-story, pre-war apartment buildings on either CPW, WEA or RSD (or perhaps just one parallel block over). That London production of the play at the Garrick in 2002 had a rotating cast of famous young actors. Besides Kieran Culkin as Warren (you are correct in your assumption he played that character), Jake Gyllenhaal, Casey Affleck and Freddie Prinze Jr took on the role at various times during the run. - | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 06:20 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - jesse21 05:45 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| You may well be right about the set. That makes sense. | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | NeoAdamite 12:16 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - jesse21 09:19 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Were you bothered (as I was) when the play talks about being Jewish, but the actors felt nothing like kids from that culture? It's hard to define what that means, of course. Sometimes I think it's the eastern European speech rhythms that are missing, or maybe it's the particular way the hands are used (or not used) when talking. Or am I losing my mind? | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | jesse21 04:28 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - NeoAdamite 12:16 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| - Agree with Alan. The speech rhythms you refer to were probably lost at the latest in the generation of the parents as described by the three characters in the play. Additionally, the play's trio no doubt attended private schools on either side of the Park. I thought the three actors looked and sounded like people of that age did on the UWS back in the 1980s and, in fact, do today, Jewish or not. - | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | ryhog 02:29 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - NeoAdamite 12:16 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I agree with what Alan said below. Kids in the 80s from either side of the park didn't sound or act like characters from a Neil Simon play. Is that kinda what you were looking for? | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 01:52 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - NeoAdamite 12:16 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I don't know if you're losing your mind, but I'm Jewish and about the age those characters would be now and I lived in that neighborhood in 1982, and I had no trouble believing any of them were Jewish kids from the Upper West Side at that time. | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | NeoAdamite 12:09 am EDT 09/12/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - AlanScott 01:52 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| I'm Jewish and about the age those characters would be now and I lived in that neighborhood in 1982 Me too, which is why I bothered asking. Though now that I think of it, I tended to run with an older crowd, maybe just enough to make a difference. | |
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