TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE: “Storefront Church” & “Medieval Play”
Get caught up with what’s on stage with our review round-up. And that vaguely hollow, clinking sound you hear at the end of each segment? That’s me tossing in my two cents. We’re doubling up with another “To See or Not to See” as two big name writers return to the stage with Off-Broadway premieres (and a special note about the new theaters they are playing in)…
The Cast of "Storefront Church". Photo by Kevin Thomas Garcia.
Pulitzer and Tony-winner John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Moonstruck) finishes his trilogy of church & state plays with a comedy/drama about disparate residents of the Bronx thrown together during foreclosure proceedings on a family home.
“…unwieldy but affecting new play…” New York Times
“But don’t go to John Patrick Shanley’s new play expecting ripped-from-the-headlines realism. This is more of a melancholy fable, or maybe a twisted fairy tale.” New York Post
“…wordy, unfocused and unresolved.” Variety
“…the intense drama about several related crises of faith opened in a quirky yet searing production…” Associated Press
Mizer’s Two Cents: While the central conflict is not entirely persuasive, the play is filled out with such endearing, moving supporting work (particularly from the heartbreakingly funny Zach Grenier) that I was happy to spend time in this world. And in a cynical age where most plays underline our personal/global inability to communicate, that Shanley reaches for a sense of collective hope and reconciliation (and silence) feels quietly revolutionary. See it if you want to watch a top notch cast engage with a problematic, searching script.
