CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
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CurtainUp The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings |
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A CurtainUp Review
All the Fine Boys
By Elyse Sommer
Fuhrman's Emily is ready to bestow what she an Jenny still refer to as "it" as a gift to Adam (Alex Wolff). That's the guitar strumming high school senior who seems smart and glamorous to Emily but isn't all that "fine" a boy in the long run. Joseph (Joe Tippett), Jenny's pick for her first sexual adventure, isn't even a boy but a 28-year-old man she met at Sunday church services. All four actors give solid performances. Breslin and Fuhrman manage to look and sound young enough to be convincing 14-year-old best friends obviously too ready to make bad choices. Adam Wolff captures the humor, smart-alecky, bravado and wistfulness of the high school senior class star done in by his charm and sex appeal. It's his character who comes closest to this working as a wistful group portrait of lost innocence and dreams. Joe Tippett is excellent as the man who should know better than to involve himself in a Lolita situation. Despite the strong creep element in his performance, Tippett does lets us see Joseph as a grown-up example of how wrong paths taken in adolescence (especially by those raised in safe but dull American suburbs) tends to result in wasted potential and, in Joseph's case, serious emotional dysfunction. Jenny isn't your typical victim, or Joseph your typical sexual predator. Yet, there's no getting away from the that despite the lurid sensationalism of their relationship, perhaps because of it, it is totally lacking in suspense. When Jenny provocatively tells Joseph I think I know what's going to happen with us" so do we — in fact, a lot more so than she does. Unfortunately Erica Schmidt also wastes the potential to make All the Fine Boys a compelling modern American Tragedy. Instead the situations she has put her characters in are way too predictably developed, and except for a few scenes, more unpleasant than absorbing to watch. The final meetup between Emily and Adam had me wondering if this might not have been a more meaningful and memorable play as a two-hander focusing on their struggle to hold on to a hopeful future. All the Fine Boys does fit the The New Group's taste for venturing into dark, provocative territory. Too bad it's dark but not provocative enough. |
Search CurtainUp in the box below PRODUCTION NOTES All the Fine Boys Written and directed by Erica Schmidt Cast: Abigail Breslin (Jenny), Isabelle Fuhrman (Emily), Joe Tippett (Joseph), Alex Wolff (Adam) Set designer: Amy Rubin Costume designer: Tom Broeker Lighting designer: Jeff Croiter Sound designer: Bart Fasbender Movement: Lorenzo Pisoni Stage Manager: Jillian Oliver Running Time: 1 hour and 40 minutes, no intermission The New Group at Pershing Square Signature Center From 2/14/17, opening 3/01/17; closing 3/26/17 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at 2/28 press preview REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
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