Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane lead an all-star cast featuring F. Murray Abraham, Stockard Channing, Megan Mullally and Micah Stock in the Broadway comedy about the comedy of Broadway: It's Only a Play. Written by four-time Tony winner Terrence McNally and directed by three-time Tony winner Jack O'Brien, this is a celebration of theatre at its best- and theatre people behaving their not-so-best.
It's opening night of Peter Austin's (Matthew Broderick) new play as he anxiously awaits to see if his show is a hit. With his career on the line, he shares his big First Night with his best friend, a television star (Nathan Lane), his fledgling producer (Megan Mullally), his erratic leading lady (Stockard Channing), his wunderkind director, an infamous drama critic (F. Murray Abraham) and a fresh-off-the-bus coat check attendant (Micah Stock in his Broadway debut).
It's alternately raucous, ridiculous and tender- reminding audiences why there's no business like show business. Thank God!
Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick made magic and a megahit together in 'The Producers'...Now the Great White Way's dynamic duo is back on stage...The reunion is wildly hit and miss -- Lane is the hit, while Broderick is the, well, you know....Wicker is custom-tailored for what Lane does best. Catty one-liners? Check. Sly slow burns? Check. High-spirited howls? Check. Lane makes the familiar fresh and delivers gusts of laughing gas. Meanwhile, Broderick drains the air and momentum as playwright Peter Austin, Wicker's BFF...What's lacking are surprises. Characters get one dimension apiece...Completing the cast is Micah Stock, a Broadway rookie who more than holds his own as a simpleton coat check with the gift of ingratiation. One reason he makes such an impression is that he shows up on Broadway without any baggage -- so the audience gets the joy of discovering a new talent making his major stage debut. Besides good old dependable Nathan Lane, this diversion has good timing going for it. People are desperate for laughs and comedies on Broadway are bloody rare. If only McNally's 'Play' was more well-done.
A passel of well-known actors from film, stage and TV including Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Megan Mullally, Rupert Grint and F. Murray Abraham cavort along with Lane in this evening of intermittent amusement -- merely lukewarm because with its slightly dated conceits, it can't decide whether to go in fully for sentimentality, satire, or the kill...And though McNally has updated the comedy's name-dropping...the breathless premise on which the comic complications hang, the outrageously eviscerating verdict of a dyspeptic New York Times critic, feels sorta kinda out of the lore of another era. Those who revel in Broadway mythology, though, will forgive the shortcomings (and drawn-out speechifying) of 'It's Only a Play' and enjoy some of the better skewering of theater archetypes.
1986 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2014 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Featured Actor in a Play | Rupert Grint |
2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | F. Murray Abraham |
2015 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | Terrence McNally |
2015 | Theatre World Awards | Theatre World Award | Micah Stock |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Micah Stock |
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