A Bright New Boise – Father, son & God Off B’way
Oscar E. Moore “from the rear mezzanine” for Talk Entertainment.com
As I left The Wild Project on East 3rd Street between Avenues A & B where I had just seen “A Bright New Boise” by Samuel D. Hunter as it ends its added performances run on Oct 2nd I couldn’t help but wonder what all the critical praise was about.
Yes, the acting from all the members of the five person cast is excellent. More than excellent, in fact. They bring out all the despair and dark humor inherent in the characters written by Mr. Hunter. The direction by Davis McCallum is solid. The set (Jason Simms) is appropriately functional in a Boise corporate way with a glass window that lets us see characters racing by or reacting through the glass which is a nice inventive touch.
Andrew Garman as Will - a shy disgraced member of a nondenominational “cult” Church where the pastor is under arrest for allowing a young man to die, comes to Boise to get a minimum wage paying job at “Hobby Lobby” a craft store in order to reconnect with his son Alex (Matt Farabee) who he had put up for adoption.
Alex, prone to having panic attacks, is now living with foster parents and has unrealized dreams of becoming a songwriter/ performer and is working at the store. His co-worker and half brother Leroy (John Patrick Doherty) has visions of being an artist and is extremely protective in a menacing way, wary that the seemingly fanatical Will, will try to convert Alex.
Pauline (Danielle Slavick) the fast talking, potty mouthed manager of Hobby Lobby is trying to keep all in order as the situation begins to unravel. Sarah Nina Hayon (Anna) another lost sole worker who loves to read and spend time after hours in the break room after secretly hiding out till the store closes tries to befriend Will and offers to listen to him read her his blog/novel about “The Rapture”.
Basically that is it. Except for the script itself which I found problematic and overflowing with religious belief jargon that takes the play into another realm all together while losing touch with the basic reason Will came back to Boise – to reconnect with his son.
There are two abrupt endings. One for each act that leaves one wondering what happened.
www.partialcomfort.org www.thewildproject.com
Photo: Stephen Taylor
Visit www.oscaremoore.com
09-29-10
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Comments:
Anonymous
wrote:
I saw this show last week, and--to be clear--I have absolutely no affiliation with it in any way. Now that that's out of the way, it's one of the best shows I've seen all year. This Talk Entertainment "review" (I seriously hesitate to call it that for the next several reasons) in insultingly dismissive. First, this "critic" hardly articulates what he thinks doesn't work about this production. The review is so vague. So general. Secondly, it is very inappropriate that a playwright (Oscar E. Moore) reviews new plays. That really seems like a basic conflict of interest. How insulting to the profession. Finally, it's equally inappropriate that this "reviewer" (I don't know whether to call Oscar E. Moore a playwright or critic) judges this production NOT on its own merit, but in the context of other reviews. Totally unprofessional.
Janice P
wrote:
I am not usually the type of person to leave comments on these things. But here I am, leaving one. The last person who commented is right. This is a conflict of interest. Mr. Moore wrote a musical called "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" that was in the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2005. Mr. Moore (along with Michael Aman) wrote the book and lyrics. Dana Rowe wrote the music. In 2009, Mr. Moore wrote a rave review of a CD by Natalie Toro that's posted his website. The review's called "Natalie Toro: B'way Diva Debut in Paris." And to quote some else's comments on Mr. Moore's own website, "Natalie Toro has worked with Dana Rowe."
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