John Patrick Shanley, the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning author of Doubt and the Oscar®-winning writer of Moonstruck, returns to MTC with this world premiere of a new play. Sometimes big things start from little things; in this case, a bag of laundry. Shanley’s latest is about three sisters and a guy who runs a laundry in Brooklyn, and the sometimes savage tricks life plays on them. Tragic and funny by turns, this story will remind you what is important in life... and the sorrow and joy of fully embracing adulthood.
Unfortunately, Shanley doesn’t offer more for Fran to do or feel. She listens, she responds, indulging in a staunch placation that is given little justification. Fran’s response and the supposed happy ending of their relationship feels more like a man’s fantasy than anything gripped in honesty. “I’m nothing but real,” Fran tells Own during their play’s final encounter. “No pretty lights.” If only that were true.
Cecily Strong brings star power to this handsome production (scenic designer Santo Loquasto has gone all out, filling the Manhattan Theatre Club’s revolving stage with no fewer than four highly detailed, distinctive setlets). Strong seems oddly miscast, though, as Fran, a 37-year-old office drone whom the 50-ish laundromat manager/owner Owen (David Zayas) immediately pegs as “gloomy.”
2024 | Off-Broadway |
MTC Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
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