Tuesday, April 15, 2014

I saw The Realistic Joneses on Broadway tonight. It's got a crazy all-star cast. It features Toni Collette (Golden Globe/Emmy winner, star of Little Miss Sunshine, Muriel's Wedding, The Sixth Sense, etc.), Michael C. Hall (Golden Globe winner, star of Dexter, Six Feet Under, etc.), Tracy Letts (Tony Award-winning actor and writer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of August: Osage County), and Marisa Tomei (Oscar winner, star of My Cousin Vinny, The Wrestler, In the Bedroom, etc.). You

Isherwood's New York Times review is a rave, and I'll just let you read an excerpt because it paints a good picture:
"Plays as funny and moving, as wonderful and weird as “The Realistic Joneses,” by Will Eno, do not appear often on Broadway. Or ever, really. You’re as likely to see a tumbleweed lolloping across 42nd Street as you are to see something as daring as Mr. Eno’s meditation on the confounding business of being alive (or not) sprouting where only repurposed movies, plays by dead people and blaring musicals tend to thrive...For all the sadness woven into its fabric, “The Realistic Joneses” brought me a pleasurable rush virtually unmatched by anything I’ve seen this season."
This is one of those slice-of-life plays, and I like that about it. It's clever and witty (I was especially impressed with Michael C. Hall's comedic skills), and it makes you think and feel without telling you what to think and feel. So I was glad to see it, and thrilled to see so many master actors onstage together.  

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