Lucky Guy

[edjames]

There is another love fest occurring on Broadway. This time around it's not Hugh Jackman but Tom Hanks taking over the adoration of his many fans at the Broadhurst Theater in a very tedious play called Lucky Guy.

 

Yeah, I know, I was expecting something great and all I got was a frenetically paced production where newspaper room desks are swung back and forth on the stage faster than race cars in the Indy 500 in a play that frankly bored me. There is a bar, too, which goes upstage and downstage and left and right with a lot of effort.

 

This is the story of NY columnist Mike McAlary an '80's and '90's wannabe Jimmy Breslin. He was a hard drinking obsessed newsman for whom the "story" was the obsession of his life. His hard drinking ways and obsession with his career finally overtakes his life, One drunken night he drives home only to become involved in a near fatal car crash and soon afterwards develops cancer and dies.

 

Written by the late Nora Efron, herself a former NYPost columnist and McAlary devotee, the play is like watching a bio in fast forward. Bits and pieces of Mike's life and career flash before the audience rarely stopping and giving us a chance to digest anything. Newspaper headlines are flashed on video screen s in the back of the stage and the set.

 

The good news is Tom Hanks is good in his Broadway debut role as McAlary. He's surrounded by his "Bosom Buddy" Peter Scolari, (perhaps Tom, Peter and Holland Taylor ("Ann") will reunite during their time on Bway?) who seems to disappear into the supporting cast. Maura Tierney from ER and The Good Wife plays Mike’s long suffering wife. The rest of the cast play multiple roles as reporters, assorted newsroom editors and such begin and end the show with an Irish drinking song. I hated the direction by George C. Wolfe and I wish Nora had had the opportunity to fine tune her script before her death.

 

But no one in that theater cared what the show was about. They all bought tickets because it was Tom Hanks and they loved him. The audience spontaneously rose to their feet at the end and gave him a rousing standing-O. It didn’t last long and the cast did not repeat the curtain call. Hundreds waited outside the stage door hoping for a glimpse of Tom after the show clutching their Playbills. The show is almost sold-out, so the producers are happy, the audience was happy, and I hope Tom is happy as well. I was just disappointed.

 

Opens April 1...

 

ED