Behind closed doors in the state of New Hampshire during the early days of 2008, a former First Lady named Hillary is in a desperate bid to save her troubled campaign for President of the United States. Her husband, Bill, sees things one way; her campaign manager, Mark, sees things another. If any of this sounds familiar, don't be fooled; in a universe of infinite possibilities, anything that can happen, will.
In Hillary and Clinton, Lucas Hnath examines the politics of marriage, gender roles, and the limitations of experience and inevitability in this profoundly timely look at an American dynasty in crisis.
That's when it's clear: Hillary and Clinton, an intriguing, fulfilling sketch of a fantasy that opened tonight at the Golden Theatre, is not The West Wing, a counterfactual of a competent, kind, White House to comfort us amid its opposite. It is instead M*A*S*H, looking back at an earlier war, to help us understand our current quagmire. The situation is real, or realish: the three characters arguing are Hillary, Bill, and Hillary's campaign strategist, Mark Penn, and Hillary really did barely eke out a win. But the interactions are imagined: It's the hard look we all wish we take at the Clintons' marriage behind closed doors.
I've liked this play since I first saw its premiere in Chicago - and, in Metcalf and Lithgow, it now has two in-sync old pros, demonstrably aware of the capriciousness of fame and power. Of course, this is not a charitable portrait of two dedicated public servants. Both appear without their pants at times - Hnath reduces them to hotel room obsessives, navigating their greatest challenge. Each other.
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