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"A BOY LIKE THAT" (West Side Story) TIMES THREEE Review by: Beth M, Nov 3, 2008 |
BOYS LIFE AT THE SECOND STAGE THEATER
By Beth Mandelbaum
I have never left a theater before without the desire to sit down and write about the play I just saw, until this afternoon, when I saw Howard Corder’s acclaimed 1988 play in revival at the Second Stage Theater. And as a subscriber to the Second Stage, I have seen many wonderful productions of great variety. I guess I am wondering if this just wasn’t too much of a “guy play” ... read more of a certain kind to reach me, though there are a number of female characters as well. Or maybe I just cannot relate to the “mentality,” for want of a better word, of this particular breed of the species, the post college set who are not making any effort to mature and grow emotionally and responsibly, even though what feels like “lip service” (no pun intended here as there is a great deal of kissing and more throughout the play) to this process occasionally breaks through. And, I would observe, this tends to be catalyzed primarily by the females in the play, whose presence and relationships with them seem to compel the three young men, Jack, Don and Phil, to at least consider facing their self stunted emotional development and gain more of a sense of self awareness.
The three young men have known each other for many years and clearly have spent a great deal of time drinking, smoking pot, and talking about their sexual conquests, both real and longed for. The play is most touching when it reveals the desperation of these men to get what they want, and the emptiness inside them which is often not easy to see on the surface, though I feel that it is implied.
The play is a series of vignettes, with 1980’s pop/rock music blaring as the pieces of the set, which is well done, are moved between scenes by a number of hip, 80’s looking young stage hands, some of who I would guess might be interns at the Second Stage. I should add that the plays direction by Michael Greif, who did wonderful work in directing, among many others, the original Rent, and two of my favorite musicals, Grey Gardens and Next To Normal, which was for me a highlight of last season’s Second Stage roster.
I must say that there is some fine acting here. However, I couldn’t find many real reasons to care all that much about the characters here, though there were, admittedly, times where I did feel touched. The three “boys” were all quite good—Jason Biggs, Rhys Coiro and Peter Scanavino, all of whom are experienced actors at fairly young ages. I can’t put any “blame,” if there is even any blame to put, on actors just because they are playing characters that I just didn’t particularly like or connect with. (Or maybe I was just a bit overwhelmed by all of that testosterone perpetually filling the stage.)
And the female actors did fine jobs too. I would like to highlight the performance of Betty Gilpin who has the most in depth role of the woman of Boys Life. I also got a kick out of seeing one of my favorite stars of Law & Order SVU fame, Stephanie March, who for several seasons played Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot, here as a jogger in Central Park who is picked up by the one “Boy” who is actually married and has a child.
I read that the play’s highly ironic title comes from the magazine for the Boy Scouts of America, but boy scouts there are not. If anything, they are “girl scouts” in the sense that they are ever on the prowl, mostly for sex, which seems to be the focus of their lives.
For my taste, I found the play to feel, at least on the surface, to be a bit crude and callous; and it seemed to me to lack genuine warmth, sensitivity to others’ feelings, and a sense of genuine caring among long term friends.
However, the more I reflect on this play, with some fine portrayals of the struggles and conflicts that these young men experience in trying to figure who they want to be and what they are seeking in sex and love, there was a kind of poignancy that I appreciated. And, in thinking back over my own life journey, and of many others, one has to truly respect how hard it can be to face the often excruciating processes of leaving the Peter Pan Years behind and transforming from adolescence into adulthood.
I am intrigued that Boys Life, when it played off Broadway in 1988, was among the plays that were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. It must have been far more timely and meaningful in the 1980’s as a fierce portrayal of the angst and inner turmoil particular to a segment of young male lifestyle of the time. It is also a piercing portrayal of the often stinging realities of male friendship and the potential for its deterioration. Perhaps Boys Life just may not have withstood the 20 years that have separated then from now. But I have the feeling that it must have well deserved all of the accolades it received during its run in the 1980’s.
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My recommendation:
Don't go
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I saw this show with:
Alone
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