YOUR FAVORITE LOGO TV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

Woody Allen and Ethan Coen Hit Broadway, One-Act Style

 

Maybe there is a reason I've never seen a one-act play on Broadway.  Or in the case of the new Relatively Speaking, now playing,  three one-act plays on Broadway.   The idea is kind of thrilling: three plays for the price of one, each centered around every American playwright's favorite topic -- families and their dysfunctions.  And if that wasn't enough, the chance to see Steve Guttenberg in real life!

One would think satirical plays penned by Academy Award winning writers such as Woody Allen and Ethan Coen would make for an exciting and unique night of theater,  but instead Relatively Speaking ends up more a confusing amalgamation of slapdash scenes and meandering plots. Ultimately, the three shorts combined end up being rather unsatisfying.

The first play, "The Talking Cure" written by Coen (one half of the famed Coen Brothers), concerns a mental patient and his therapist. The audience is shepherded through various therapy sessions between the two to find out why this man has in fact been institutionalized. And, non-shocking spoiler alert, it has to do with his crazy parents.

With no disrespect to Coen, the play feels a bit thrown together and rushed, almost as if it were part of a 24-hour play festival.  Even in a comedy, there should be some sense of character development and idea to extrude. This one-act sadly lacked both.

 

The second offering, "George Is Dead" written by two-time Oscar nominee Elaine May, starts off better, and at least has a decipherable plot.  Marlo Thomas plays Doreen, the incomparably selfish septuagenarian whose husband has just died in a skiing accident. Doreen flounders as she hasn't any friends with whom to grieve, so she ultimately crashes her old nanny's daughter's apartment.  For a while, it seems like the play is going somewhere in a farcical way, but then it goes somewhat off the rails. In the end, the final moments of the play make it difficult to start believing what is happening onstage and allow the audience to care about the characters.

 

The final work, "Honeymoon Motel" by Allen, is the most fully realized and structurally sound play of the three.  Allen knows how to get a laugh, be it obvious, pandering, self-deprecating, or more likely, all of the above.  He knows how to write, and his ability to write clever and relevant farcical comedies is very much on display in this work.  His story, about a wedding party gone awry (I won't spoil the fun), builds and builds, and has a clear ending that is satisfying and smile-worthy.  It also stars Steve Guttenberg and Julie Kavner (the voice of Marge Simpson), so the audience has the added bonus of some familiar faces /voices.

Relatively Speaking could have been a satisfying night of theater if someone took the time to edit these plays, but it seems as if more time was devoted to writing and creation rather than tightening.  Granted, Coen, May and Allen may have better things to do than write one-acts for Broadway, but, should that be the case, why participate at all?  It will be interesting to see how others respond to the works, perhaps they all just went over my head.

Relatively Speaking is currently playing at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 256 West 47th St in New York, NY.

Latest News