Patrick Heusinger and Patrick Breen in 'Next Fall' at Playwrights Horizons.
After a season crowded with overblown musicals, dead-on-arrival revivals and inert comedies (and that’s only counting Broadway shows), Next Fall and its charismatic cast comes as a breath of refreshing air.
Playwright Geoffrey Nauffts’ story is simple enough: While friends and family wait in a hospital waiting room for Luke (Patrick Heusinger) to emerge from a coma after being hit by a taxi, flashbacks flesh out his relationship with his older boyfriend Adam (Patrick Breen). But their problems don’t stem from an age difference. Luke is a committed, if naive, Christian, one who trusts that anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their savior goes to heaven, while anyone who doesn’t will be thrown into the fiery pits of hell.
Still, as embodied by Heusinger, Luke is an adorable guy, except for that one major flaw, and Heusinger and Breen’s chemistry convince us that they’re a couple you’d like to hang out with—as long as religion stays off the conversational menu. Adam’s main flaw, however, is attempting to convince Luke he’s wrong by verbally bludgeoning him, masking his doubts about Luke’s seriousness regarding their relationship behind an increasingly faltering wall of banter.
But Nauffts’ religious differences plot—which often has the crackle of a sitcom premise, until Adam goes too far—isn’t what sets the play apart from the usual Off-Broadway or gay-play dreck. What makes Next Fall a summer must-see is Nauffts’ ability to wring unexpected comedy from overly familiar situations, crafting vignettes that illuminate both the characters and the growing divide between Luke and Adam. One might wish that a story about the relationship between two gay men didn’t culminate in a tense hospital showdown about visitation rules, but one forgives Nauffts’ lack of originality when the rewards here are so great.
Most of those rewards come courtesy of a crack supporting cast, led by Maddie Corman as Adam’s deceptively ditzy friend Holly, and Connie Ray as Luke’s bawdy, raucous mother Arlene. Their characters both threaten to tip over into formulaic territory, but director Sheryl Kaller smartly stops Corman and Ray from venturing into caricatures. Ray’s trajectory from babbling Southern eccentric to a heartbroken steel magnolia is a particular delight, as Arlene overcomes her religion and Luke’s fundamentalist father (played with terrifying authority by Cotter Smith) to comfort Adam.
Not that Adam is allowed to be a victim. The audience is firmly on his side for the first half of the play, but as his behavior becomes more erratic (he tells Butch he could wipe his ass with the Bible without guilt) and his demands more strident, Nauffts implicates Adam in everything that happens. Kaller and Breen wisely refrain from pushing for the audience’s sympathy, trusting that atheistic Adam will eventually be redeemed. That might also be what sets Next Fall apart; plays that take such a wistful, funny look at redemption are few and far between these days.
Through July 5. The Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-279-4200; $40.
Playwright Geoffrey Nauffts’ story is simple enough: While friends and family wait in a hospital waiting room for Luke (Patrick Heusinger) to emerge from a coma after being hit by a taxi, flashbacks flesh out his relationship with his older boyfriend Adam (Patrick Breen). But their problems don’t stem from an age difference. Luke is a committed, if naive, Christian, one who trusts that anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their savior goes to heaven, while anyone who doesn’t will be thrown into the fiery pits of hell.
Still, as embodied by Heusinger, Luke is an adorable guy, except for that one major flaw, and Heusinger and Breen’s chemistry convince us that they’re a couple you’d like to hang out with—as long as religion stays off the conversational menu. Adam’s main flaw, however, is attempting to convince Luke he’s wrong by verbally bludgeoning him, masking his doubts about Luke’s seriousness regarding their relationship behind an increasingly faltering wall of banter.
But Nauffts’ religious differences plot—which often has the crackle of a sitcom premise, until Adam goes too far—isn’t what sets the play apart from the usual Off-Broadway or gay-play dreck. What makes Next Fall a summer must-see is Nauffts’ ability to wring unexpected comedy from overly familiar situations, crafting vignettes that illuminate both the characters and the growing divide between Luke and Adam. One might wish that a story about the relationship between two gay men didn’t culminate in a tense hospital showdown about visitation rules, but one forgives Nauffts’ lack of originality when the rewards here are so great.
Most of those rewards come courtesy of a crack supporting cast, led by Maddie Corman as Adam’s deceptively ditzy friend Holly, and Connie Ray as Luke’s bawdy, raucous mother Arlene. Their characters both threaten to tip over into formulaic territory, but director Sheryl Kaller smartly stops Corman and Ray from venturing into caricatures. Ray’s trajectory from babbling Southern eccentric to a heartbroken steel magnolia is a particular delight, as Arlene overcomes her religion and Luke’s fundamentalist father (played with terrifying authority by Cotter Smith) to comfort Adam.
Not that Adam is allowed to be a victim. The audience is firmly on his side for the first half of the play, but as his behavior becomes more erratic (he tells Butch he could wipe his ass with the Bible without guilt) and his demands more strident, Nauffts implicates Adam in everything that happens. Kaller and Breen wisely refrain from pushing for the audience’s sympathy, trusting that atheistic Adam will eventually be redeemed. That might also be what sets Next Fall apart; plays that take such a wistful, funny look at redemption are few and far between these days.
Through July 5. The Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-279-4200; $40.
