Leap of Faith

In opening this review, I take note that I cannot find a show banner icon that does not have Raul Esparza's name atop the title.  Clearly the producers are hanging their hats (and everything else) on the draw that this popular, charismatic Broadway star has to offer.   However, a show needs more than a star.  It needs a book that is not a boring as watching a movie rerun on a Saturday night.  It needs more than a few wave-your-hands-in-the-air gospel inspired numbers and it most certainly needs that star to be someone you believe.   Unfortunately, the aforementioned are all omnipresent in this circus-feel sideshow.   

While Mr. Esparza does an admirable job as a leading man, I just never believed he was who he purported to be.  His vocals were all capable, his acting was acceptable, but is he really a traveling, proselytizing con-artist? Nah.  The show ambles along - raising the tent, taking advantage of the town and the audience alike - with the revival theme causing the actors to break the 4th wall as if we, too, are there for the word of the lord.  Eh.  While there are moments of glory (e.g. Robin Wagner's tent is superb), they are few and far between.  Leslie Odom, Jr. creates a believable yet expected foil, Isaiah Sturdevant, to Mr. Esparza's Jonas Nightengale but it all seemed so obvious.  Kendra Kassebaum plays the down-trodden younger sister with aplomb yet the entire routine seemed so been there, done that.  Replacing Brooke Shields (she originated the role of Marla McGowan in the LA premiere production in 2010) with Jessica Phillips didn't seem to be much of an improvement - but neither was it a detriment.  

Perhaps it's just the fact, as Ben Brantley pointed out in his own review, that we've seen the last entrant in the Broadway season and we're just exhausted.  And this roadside carnival did nothing to refresh and enliven us one bit - even with that fabulous silver jacket Mr. Odom eventually dons and some much needed rain on the stage.  

The Receptionist

Occasionally, it happens. I see a play and walk out with a totally different perspective than Ben Brantly, Charles Isherwood, and the other critics. They loved it.

Don't get me wrong - Jane Houdyshell is pitch-perfect in her portrayal of every one's favorite admin in the office - she comes and goes like the Swiss railroad, she guards her pens, chitty-chats with the staff and her friends and family all day on the phone while allowing occasional work task to creep in, throws the un-wanted callers into voicemail for the boss, and keeps a watchful eye over the comings and goings in the entire office.

Other than the bright spot of Jane - this play was a disaster. The first scene took 10 minutes to unfold - and went nowhere. You had no idea what Robert Foxworth is talking about.

Then the next 50 minutes were spend watching meaningless and pointless conversations take place and leave you asking after over an hour - - "Where is this thing going"? You are supposed to infer after a while that some form of futuristic torture is in play.

Not even in the final 15 minutes to they even get to the point. And then - after you finally convince yourself that you were right in your vague assumption thus far, the play ends!! What becomes of our favorite admin? You can only assume her dark fate.

You never saw the boss again. You find out the other co-worker ran away. And you come to learn that that the "Northeast Office" and the "Central Office" are nothing more than a proxy for the CIA... or the FBI... of some vague combination of Abu-Garave in Iraq.

I'm sorry Ben, Charles, and all the others who loved it. I think you may have dozed off and got the funny lines in the beginning and the "dramatic" ending. I couldn't even bring myself to clap at the end. Mostly because the person next to me asked two or three times in the dark "is that it"?