Theatre

I got tickets for Man and Boy mainly for one reason: I wanted to see the sexy Frank Langella that my mom described from the 1970’s Broadway rendition of Dracula.  Of course now he is much older, grayer, and heavier, but he still had a suave way about him.  It may have been because his character was such a sneaky one.

The story of Man and Boy is overall a story of a father (Frank) and son (Adam Driver) with a tense relationship.  It takes place in the days of the Great Depression, when everyone in New York City had to scrounge around for money.  Basil Anthony (Adam) lives in a crummy lower level apartment in the Village, his girlfriend Carol (Virginia Penn) often visiting.  He is ashamed of his father’s corrupt ways as he listens to the news.  Gregor Antonescu is a lying, conniving man who tricks people into giving him their money.  He never pays them back.  He has been doing a slick job up until now, but the authorities are on to him.  He arrives in the Village and uses Basil’s apartment as a hide-out.  He attempts yet another trickery with a business man, playing on his emotions by acting gay.  The homosexual business man mistakes Basil as Gregor’s plaything.  In the end, though, this deal falls through as it becomes public knowledge that Gregor cannot be trusted.  The play ends with Gregor leaving the apartment with a loaded gun, set on nothing less than killing himself in the park outside.

It has been a long while between the date of my viewing this play and the date that I am writing this “review.”  I do know, however, that it wasn’t the most compelling of plays that I have seen.  There were some nuances that were humorous as the audience laughed along with the playfully slick Gregor, but all in all, the story line was not too intriguing.  Though the relationship between Gregor and Basil was obviously tense, I believe it was not developed enough, leaving the viewer a bit confused in the end.

I attended this play on a cold, October, evening, with sleet falling from the sky.  Even so, I waited outside the non-existent stage door to get Mr. Langella’s autograph.  I was unsuccessful, though, and after thirty minutes walked down to Penn Station.  My mom later sent the cover of one of our playbills to the theatre, asking for his autograph.  I’m grateful to Mr. Langella for the signed playbill that I received in the mail. Christopher Walken, (A Behanding in Spokane) I’m still waiting!

Man and Boy
American Airlines Theatre
October 29, 2011

Marina B. Nebro

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 29th, 2011 at 11:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.