Quite apart from what is taught in schools, hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills have been tabled in the legislatures, mostly focused on discriminating against trans kids. The outlawing of abortion, before any Supreme Court ruling on the matter, is under way state by state. It balances the comedy of small-town mundanity with a more dramatic indictment of racism and democracy’s failure.įor this critic, this play feels all too painfully up to the minute, as Republican-run legislatures seek to control what is taught in schools, doing all they can to stamp out discussion of LGBTQ and race-related issues, under a general anti-critical race theory banner. (It opened on Broadway in February 2020, before COVID-19 closed it.) The Minutes bluntly shows us how society can fall apart under faulty strip lighting, all the while following committee rules and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Peel.Īlthough the play feels beyond timely, Letts originally wrote it in 2017, as the Trump presidency ground into gear. The audience makes it clear they want to know the truth as much as the newly elected Mr. The audience’s response to the action shows that, whatever else, Letts has succeeded in making an interactive play. In their council chamber, the cast forms a semi-circle on stage, and we the audience complete the circle, watching the inner workings of the meeting. Shapiro directs, David Zinn is the designer-strikingly sets up the play’s central idea. Intentionally or not, the physical staging of The Minutes-Anna D. Assalone (Jeff Still) as that name sounds, rather than, as he eventually gives up insisting, “Mr. He’s a pediatric dentist, but not hustling for business, he says. Peel ( Schitt’s Creekstar Noah Reid) trying to make small talk over kids. Johnson (Jessie Mueller) has no time for Mr. Innes (Blair Brown) has a statement to read out that is also a rap sheet of local scandals. Mayor Superba (an avuncular-meets-menacing Letts) and his fellow council colleagues are exasperated with Oldfield’s interruptions and crotchety mischief-making. Oldfield (Austin Pendleton, scene-stealing, comic genius) is particularly exercised over parking spaces. The Final Season of ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Is Perfect The play, which opens on Broadway on Sunday night (Studio 54, booking to July 24), is centered around a council meeting in the small town of Big Cherry, with a gallery of the strange, eccentric, and clueless blowhards you might expect flexing their jaded, policy-shaping muscles. At first playwright and star Tracy Letts, and his on-fire company of actors, seem to take us to comedic Parks and Recreation territory. The Minutes is a brilliantly sugared, very bitter pill.
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