Zack

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While not the classic that Hobson’s Choice has become, Harold Brighouse’s follow-up play Zack proves to be a charming Edwardian comedy drama in the Mint Theater Company’s production which may be the first full New York production since 1916. Ironically, Zack has a great many things in common with Hobson’s Choice probably best known from the awarding-winning 1954 Sir David Lean film with Charles Laughton, John Mills, Brenda da Banzie and Prunella Scales. Britt Berke’s production glosses over the play’s deficiencies by keeping this middle-class comedy of manners going at quite a clip.

While Zack shares many elements with Hobson’s Choice, the two plays are very different, variations on a theme: a strong woman who saves the hero from his weaknesses, siblings who are against seeing the strength of an unambitious person, a parent who is both dominating and dogmatic, and a happy ending for the leading characters. However, both are based on the theme of the “worm turning.”

Set in the small English village of Little Hulton, Lancashire, Zack introduces us to the Munning family: Mrs. Munning, a snobbish miserly woman who runs a catering business, her elder son Paul, a mean and conceited man of 30 who nominally runs the family joinery business but also manages the catering, and 29-year-old Zack who the family considers to be lazy, awkward and socially inept. The Munnings give Zack no wages and no chances as they think he is not worth the trouble. This all changes when rich cousin Virginia Cavender arrives to recuperate from a long illness. She is immediately smitten with Zack but Mrs. Munning has other ideas: Virginia’s money would be a help to her business and she wants Paul to woo and marry her.

Unfortunately, Zack becomes involved with Martha Wrigley, the dim daughter of one of their waiters, the big blow-hard Joe, quick to take offense and quick to see an opportunity. On the very day that Virginia is due to visit, Joe breaks his arm and Martha arrives with his tuxedo to give them the bad news for a wedding they are catering the next day. Feeling sorry for her, tender-hearted Zack gives her a kiss and he is caught by his mother who joking says “When is the wedding?” Unfortunately for the Munnings, Martha takes this as fact and tells her father she is now engaged to Zack. But a marriage of two rather helpless people would be a mistake and Zack knows this immediately. It takes the strong Virginia to set things right and get back at several of the more mercenary characters.

Under the direction of Berke, the cast consistently hits the right notes at all times, though some roles are underplayed. Melissa Maxwell, playing a middle-class version of her Lady Mottram from the Mint’s rediscovery of Brighouse’s Garside’s Career last season, is fine as the penny pinching and social climbing Mrs. Munning. As her son Paul, David T. Patterson is always mean-spirited and ultimately the villain of the piece. Cassia Thompson as the heiress who is a cousin to the Munnings plays her cards close to the vest as well as making everything right by the end.

Off-beat casting for Zack, Jordan Matthew Brown as the bearded,  overweight, unambitious son is both endearing and likeable as the title character. As the impertinent and lazy maid hired only for the duration of Virginia’s visit to give her a false impression of the Munnings’ social status, Caroline Festa could be a bit more brash and smart-alecky which is in all of her retorts. Though Grace Guichard as the helpless Martha Wrigley is very believable as the rather dim daughter of a domineering father, she is rather colorless. Tall, physically fit Sean Runnette gives a very big, over-the-top performance as her father Joe Wrigley, a braggart who is almost as big a social climber as Mrs. Munning.

The production team has done a fine job of recreating the Edwardian Era. Brittany Vasta’s pale blue and white set with its striped wallpaper and matching blue upholstery is perfect for the play’s three acts. This is aided by the props of Chris Fields. The costumes by Kindall Almond are particularly effective with the women’s dresses but she is equally at home with the various suits for the men, all of which define the social pretentions of the characters. Mary Louise Geiger is responsible for the warm lighting which gives the Munnings’ parlor its homey feeling.

While not as fine a play as Hobson’s Choice, Harold Brighouse’s Zack is a delightful rediscovered comedy of character with many colorful roles which actors can sink their teeth into. More convincing than their uneven production of Garside’s Career last season, Britt Berke’s staging for the Mint Theater Company is an engrossing comedy drama which like Moliere’s plays reveals a good deal about human nature in a time of social change. As the Mint has often staged a trilogy of plays by a rediscovered playwright, may we look forward to a third Harold Brighouse play next season?

Zack (through March 28, 2026)

Mint Theater Company

Theatre 4 at Theatre Row, 410 W. 42^nd Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 212-714-2442 or visit http://www.minttheater.org

Running time: one hour and 45 minutes including one intermission