OFF-BROADWAY REVIEW
I'm always excited to see a Manhanttan Theatre Club production. Something about the ambiance they create speaks of old time theatre. Maybe it's just the fact that they call it a club that makes me feel fancy, but I like it. As I metered City Center Stage 1, my thoughts and feelings were no different. My knowledge of the play was limited to a single lime I read in passing somewhere: it's about a family with an ultra-manipulative mother. Fair enough. My guest asked me what it was about and I cheekily answered, "it's about a family." Sarcastically he responded, "Next time someone asks me what Next to Normal is about, I'm going to tell them it's about a family." Now, if you've seen Next to Normal, you're probably laughing, much the way we did. We had no idea then that 90 minutes later we would leave the theatre describing "That Face" as a strangely out of place combination of Next to Normal, August Osage County, and the humor of perhaps A Behanding in Spokane. Three shows with serious acclaim. Three shows that one may think can be combined to create a further exciting piece of work. Truthfully? "That Face" was confusing. Plain and simple. The show opened with a scene that appeared to be a Sorority initiation gone wrong. Come to find out a pair of high school girls drugged and beat a younger student. Fine, how will this develop? Well, there in lies the problem. It appears the only purpose of what seemed to us like violent measures was to get dear old dad to leave Japan and return to London. Is the family dysfunctional. You betcha. Is the mother manipulative? Well, in a word, yes, but throughout the show, you find yourself wondering if she's mentally unstable or just an extremely unfit mother? This could be interesting if it just wasn't so strange. It should be noted that every performer in the production was outstanding. The mother was convincing, the son was extremely compelling, and likable, the daughter made me feel for her and I walked away thinking I would like to see each of them again. However, the question remains, if I were them, would I invite my friends to see thus production? Probably not. Is it something I would find myself proud of? Sadly, probably not. This barely hour and a half long show hardly received any applause. When the audience clapped, it seemed confused. There were many beats, silent moments when the actors seemed to be waiting for laughter. It was forced. Worst of all, a fair number of patrons got up part of the way through and left, clearly unimpressed. Have we missed the point? Maybe. Perhaps you have to be British to understand some of the humor, but it definitely did not translate well for this audience. And, needless to say, it could have been a good 20 minutes shorter. If it didn't drag, maybe they wouldn't have left. Overall, yikes, I'm not even sure what they were trying to accomplish with this piece. Hopefully we get to see these actors in something else soon. But hey, if you're looking for something out of the ordinary, you've found it!
"THAT FACE" OFF-BROADWAY REVIEW
Reviewed by Sasha Pensanti
Published 2010-05-19
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