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| L-R: Xavier Rooney, Lisa Jill Anderson, Will Sarratt, and Marcia Debonis in EVERYTHING IS SUPER GREAT. Photo by Hunter Canning. |
Dysfunctional families, abandonment, disappearances,
dementia, failures to communicate, inter-generational conflict – these are
among the most basic themes traditionally addressed on stage. Seldom, however, are they explored as deftly
and in such light-hearted fashion as they are by Stephen Brown in Everything Is Super Great, his first
full length play to be staged in New York.
And it is why this play, produced by New Light Theater Company and Stable
Cable Lab Co. and directed by Sarah Norris at 59E59 Theaters in midtown
Manhattan, engenders so many more laughs than tears from the audience.
Tommy (Will Sarratt) is an awkward 19-year old whose
father abandoned his family years ago and whose older brother has been missing
for months. He is highly accomplished
when it comes to computers but much less so when it comes to relating to others
in real life – and he has serious anger management problems. Having been fired from his job at Applebee’s
for setting fire to the restaurant after getting into a row with a customer, he
is currently.employed in an entry-level job as a barista at Starbucks and is
living at home with his very well-meaning but smothering mother, Anne (Marcia
Debonis).
Moreover, losing his job at Applebee’s was the least of Tommy’s
problems: as a result of his setting the fire, he was charged with arson, a
felony. His mother did succeed in
getting the charge reduced to a misdemeanor, but only on the condition that
Tommy undergo therapy to learn how to deal with his anger management problems. (Which really is a bit ironic since Anne
apparently has anger management problems herself, subsequently getting into a
fight with a customer at Walmart which gets her fired from her job there too.)
Anyway, Tommy is more than willing to undergo therapy -
if he can do it through a course over the internet – but his mother has other
ideas. She insists that he enter into
therapy with Dave (Xavier Rooney), a one-time co-worker of hers at Walmart who
is now a wannabe therapist who believes that his MFA degree will enable him to
treat Tommy effectively through art therapy.
But Dave, as it turns out, has abandonment and anger management problems
of his own. His girlfriend, Rachel, has
walked out on him, taking all her stuff (and some of his), leaving no
forwarding address and no explanation.
And just to add to the play’s overarching themes of dysfunctionality,
disappearances, and abandonment, it turns out that Tommy’s immediate supervisor
at Starbucks is Alice (Lisa Jill Anderson), an attractive 21-year old
pot-smoking former schoolmate of Tommy’s (although she doesn’t remember him at
all) who lives with her grandmother and is her sole care-giver. And, wouldn’t you know it, grandma suffers from
dementia, wanders off one day, and disappears as well.
So there you have it: Anne’s husband and Tommy’s father
is gone, Anne’s oldest son and Tommy’s brother is gone, Dave’s girlfriend is
gone, Alice’s grandmother is gone, and all that remains is for this
dysfunctional group to sort it all out as best they can in the most cheerful,
comedic manner one might imagine.
And they prove to be fully up to the task. Will Sarrratt (who reminded me a lot of
Thomas Middledith, the star of TV’s Silicon
Valley) is terrific as the quirky, socially awkward and generally dysfunctional
Tommy who is nonetheless quite intelligent and compassionate. Lisa Jill Anderson succeeds in conveying a
full range of emotions as Alice, a young
woman unfairly burdened with the responsibility of caring for her high
maintenance grandmother. Xavier Rooney
is truly delightful as Dave, a lost soul who really isn’t sure who or what he
wants out of life but is certainly going to give it his best shot. And last, but certainly not least, is Marcia
Debonis, whose exuberance, effervescence and just plain well-meaning (if often misplaced)
goodness as Anne suffuse the entire production.
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