Patrick Heusinger as Luke and Patrick Breen as Adam
(Photo credit: Carol Rosegg)
A major new American play has come to Broadway from a sold-out run Off Broadway last summer. The Naked Angels production of Next Fall by first time playwright Geoffrey Nauffts has moved intact from Playwrights Horizons to the Helen Hayes Theatre. This wonderfully written, deeply moving, hilarious new comedy-drama tells an engrossing story of big issues: faith, commitment and unconditional love. Although the cast is not made up of household names, this is the kind of play that could make them famous. Sheryl Kaller’s pitch-perfect direction makes it very easy to forget that you are watching a play.
Next Fall’s structure is part of the new trend to include flashbacks as part of the story telling. The play begins in a New York hospital waiting room where family and friends await word on Luke (Patrick Heusinger), a 30 year old actor who is in a coma as a result of a car accident. In the waiting room are his friend Holly (Maddie Corman), a candle shop owner who is Luke’s boss on his day job, his friend Brandon (Sean Dugan) with whom he roomed five years before, and his divorced parents Butch (Cotter Smith) and Arlene (Connie Ray), who have flown in from Florida. Missing when the play begins is Luke’s partner of five years, Adam (Patrick Breen), who had been at his college reunion when the accident occurred.
In flashbacks, the play recounts how Adam and Luke met at a birthday party for Holly at which Luke was working as a waiter. With Luke’s movie star good looks, Adam could not believe that Luke would be interested in him, a neurotic wise-cracking hypochondriac who is 15 years old. But like the characters in a Woody Allen comedy, Adam is strangely attractive to Luke, and they are soon living together. However, although they have an enduring love, there is a stumbling block. Adam is an atheist while Luke is a devout Christian who prays before eating and after sex. He would like Adam to find the faith that sustains him.
Just as big a problem is that Luke’s family doesn’t know he is gay because of their fundamentalist beliefs, but he promises to tell his younger brother when he becomes a freshman at college next fall. However, like the tomorrow that never comes, Luke never gets around to telling his brother. When Luke’s father makes a surprise visit to New York Luke wants Adam to leave the house until his father is gone. The play works its way back to the present, and when Adam arrives at the hospital, if any decisions are to be made Luke’s parents are unaware that he has any rights. Adam doesn’t want to be the one to tell them about his five year relationship with their son while Luke hasn’t gotten around to telling them.
Underpinning the play are the big issues of faith, commitment and unconditional love. What would you sacrifice for a loved one? Must you believe exactly what your partner believes? Can you believe in your partner’s unconditional love if that person’s faith stands in the way? Can you live with someone who has the opposite beliefs from you? To what extent can you tamper with a loved one’s beliefs if they go against yours? In a subtle way, the play takes these issues as far as they can go at this time in history.
From this description you wouldn’t realize how funny the play is. The trenchant one-liners and witty repartee between the neurotic Adam and the laid-back Holly are priceless. In the flashbacks, the even-tempered Luke is able to fall into their seemingly effortlessness banter. Luke’s parents come in for some easy laughs at the expense of their limited knowledge of the ways of the big city and how other people live.
The casting is impeccable and the fact that the actors have been with these roles since last summer makes it seem like they are living them rather than acting them. Both Breen’s Adam and Heusinger’s Luke are endearing, Breen for his phobias and irrationality and Heusinger for his relaxed charm and self-confidence. Corman is hilarious as the supportive nonconformist. Dugan brings a quiet dignity to Luke’s gay friend who faded away when he began his commitment to Adam.
If the play has one fault it is that Luke’s fundamentalist parents are stereotypes in their squareness and inflexibility. Not this that this makes them unbelievable, but just that the play is so well written that it seems to be an unnecessary weakness. Cotter Smith makes a strong impression as the bigoted father who cannot even entertain the thought that other people may not live as he does. Ray is most amusing as the reformed free spirit who attempts to see things from other people’s point of view, even though her experience of the world is quite limited.
The Off Broadway production has successfully made the transition to the intimate Helen Hayes Theatre. Wilson Chin has cleverly solved the problem of the multiple sets, mainly the hospital waiting room and Adam and Luke’s apartment, using some of the same elements in each. Jess Goldstein’s contemporary costumes have the casual lived-in look of real clothes. The subtle play of lighting for the various times of day over the five-year time period is the work of Jeff Croiter. The upbeat original music as well as the suitable sound design is by John Gromada.
Geoffrey Nauffts’ Next Fall is an extraordinary achievement as a first play. Nauffts’ previous work as an actor, director, and artistic director has stood him in good stead in that he is very well versed in what works on the stage. His accomplished play is both uproarious and deeply affecting, and whatever your affiliation, you will care deeply what happens to Adam and Luke. This is the sort of play where you hang on every word both because of the wit and the truth of the lines. I cannot imagine a better a production than the one that Sheryl Kaller has brought to this Broadway season.
Next Fall (open run)
Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 W. 44th Street
For tickets, call 212-239-6200 or http://www.telecharge.com