What, exactly, transpired at the previous week’s meeting is something of a mystery, at least to the idealistic newcomer Mr. 'The Little Prince' Broadway Review: Classic Tale Takes Flightīroadway's Covid-Hit 'Paradise Square', 'Macbeth', 'A Strange Loop' Cancel Additional Performances

Shapiro, and together they find once again the eccentric, perfect balance of laugh-out-loud humor, dark undercurrents and emotional violence that made the prize-winning August unforgettable.īroadway's Covid-Hit 'Plaza Suite' Returns Thursday, Sarah Jessica Parker Two Days Later The Minutes – there are a brisk 90 of them in all – begins as one thing and ends up quite another, and every step along the way is so finely rendered that we’re too busy savoring the moment to see what’s waiting just ahead.įeaturing an impeccable cast headed by Noah Reid – the Schitt’s Creek star makes a wonderful Broadway debut here – The Minutes reunites playwright and cast member Letts with his August: Osage County director Anna D. 7, 2018.Tracy Letts’ The Minutes would be one of the most thrilling new plays on Broadway this season even if recent real-life events hadn’t made it seem as uncanny as it is funny and, ultimately, disarming. Set, David Zinn costumes, Ana Kuzmanic lighting, Brian MacDevitt sound, Andre Pluess choreography, Dexter Bullard vocal coach, Gigi Buffington stage manager, Christine D. Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago 510 seats $105 topĪ Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of a play in one act by Tracy Letts. In a world where Trump becomes president, the truth of “The Minutes” is laid bare: winning means controlling the underlying myths that govern our community interactions, while losing means oblivion.Ĭhicago Theater Review: ‘The Minutes’ by Tracy Letts And yet … this play doesn’t just fit the moment, it goes a certain way toward explaining in human - if not pleasant - terms, why when certain stories are exposed as distortions or even blatant untruths, they are only told more forcefully.

The President goes unmentioned the play would exist had he not been elected (the first draft was completed shortly after the election). Peel peels away at the story, using his knowledge of obscure bureaucratic notation to pry loose the events of the previous week, which involves a larger history, which as we learn, is not about truth but power.Īnd this, in the end, is how Letts manages to make this play all about Trumpism without being the slightest bit about Trump. Johnson (Brittany Burch).įollowing his conscience, and his function, Mr. Peel looks for the minutes to fill him in on what occurred the week before, they are nowhere to be found, apparently not “prepared for distribution,” despite the sure-footed competence of the carefully quiet council clerk Ms. Carp (played in flashback by Ian Barford) suddenly lost his Council seat. He missed the previous meeting when his mother passed away, leading to a barrage of condolences but not much information on why another member of the council, Mr. Peel (Cliff Chamberlain) is the Jimmy Stewart figure of the story, a clean-scrubbed, new-to-town, and recently elected member who felt called to public service with the birth of his daughter. Breeding (Kevin Anderson), the not politically correct, loud laugher who simply doesn’t understand why “normal people” should spend any money on things such as providing the disabled with access to enjoy the city’s fountain.Īs is often the case, the outsider is our way into this world. Blake (James Vincent Meredith), a non-ideological African-American with alcohol on his breath and an idea to enliven the town’s beloved harvest festival with cage fighting (and, somehow, Abe Lincoln) and Mr.

Oldfield (Francis Guinan), the longest-serving and frequently befuddled council member for the city of Big Cherry Mr. The cast of characters represents a humorously unflattering view of small-time civics in the rainy, unquestionably middle American small town of Big Cherry.

The minutes by tracy letts review