![]() Letts was raised in Durant, Oklahoma and graduated from Durant High School in the early 1980s. His brother Shawn is a jazz musician and composer. Letts was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to best-selling author Billie Letts, of Where The Heart Is and The Honk And Holler Opening Soon fame, and the late college professor and actor Dennis Letts. Out in the night air on West 54th Street, you can congratulate yourself for having seen a Broadway play that bluntly ridicules people who belong to the wrong tribe.Tracy Letts is an American playwright and actor who received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play August: Osage County. “The Minutes” isn’t a tragedy or even a very funny comedy. Missing in all the whipped-up fury is any thought of what separates Barford’s character from the others. Shapiro whips it all up into a Walpurgisnacht of anger enhanced by lightening (lighting by Brian MacDevitt) and lots of thunder (sound and original music by Andre Pluess). Letts assigns himself one of the play’s two best roles, giving the other to Ian Barford, who was also magnetic in the playwright’s last Broadway offering, “Linda Vista.” Both actors possess the innate gravitas needed to turn this finale conflict into a real pitbull dog fight. In a way, the battle reenactment replicates what Tucker Carlson does on a nightly basis only in reverse, turning liberals into stupid and close-minded kids.Īs with any good agitprop, there’s a battle between good and evil, and in “The Minutes” it’s a theatrical stunner. Of course, that’s Letts’ point: His actors represent despicable people, so make fun of them even when the fun is lame. ![]() Why are adult actors being asked to do these things in public? It’s the kind of scene that provokes nervous laughter and makes parents blush at a grade-school pageant. The council members reenact the battle in blatantly idiotic fashion. Long before the true history of the warrior statue is uncovered, you will have guessed that only lock-step morons could honor such a memory. The “lost” minutes of the title are finally disclosed in the most obvious and least imaginative way possible. You may find yourself always about 30 minutes ahead of what’s happening in “The Minutes,” which is a problem for a play that lasts only 90. ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ Off Broadway Review: James McAvoy Plays a Poet Stud But hey, the character is a useful idiot, so go at her! Unfortunately, this silly nincompoop presages far cruder writing to come. Letts’ material here is reminiscent of TV sitcoms from the 1970s or earlier, as sexist as it is ageist. Shapiro’s uneven direction.īut what are we to make of the total female dingbat on the council, who appears also to be its youngest member? Perhaps there’s no other way for Sally Murphy to play this thankless and equally unfunny role. Todd Freeman and Jeff Still also keep the seemingly benign fascism from surfacing too soon under Anna D. Playing the mayor’s henchmen, Cliff Chamberlain, K. ![]() Two pros, Brown and Pendleton, give acting lessons on how to underplay for maximum comic effect. The speech amuses for a couple of reasons: Just when you think it’s finished, it’s not and more important, Brown delivers an amazing impersonation of Senator Dianne Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee before she was relieved of those duties sometime after the unfortunate Amy Coney Barrett hearings. Brown personifies willful incompetence.Īnd speaking of entitled senility, Austin Pendleton plays an even older council member whose major concern is his parking space. Hopefully, theatergoers are paying attention, because an older female council member (Blair Brown) prolongs the tedium of the city council meeting by delivering a self-congratulatory speech about the upcoming November festival, which for her symbolizes Big Cherry’s pride. Our interest in “The Minutes” hangs on those two brief mentions of persecuted indigenous people at the top. ‘American Buffalo’ Broadway Review: Sam Rockwell and Laurence Fishburne Explore Mamet’s Dark Side ![]()
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