You will probably never catch me at a musical in New York, or anywhere for that matter. I paid my dues watching my sister throughout high school, so never again, thank you. Instead, you’ll be more likely to find me in attendance at a play. Especially if there are some high profile stars attached!
While maybe not as impressive as Jake Gyllenhaal or Tom Hiddleston, Aubrey Plaza is on a hot streak right now, so her name brings a lot of star power, but I was mostly excited at seeing Christopher Abbott play opposite her. It was also very neat to see the Black Bear co-stars reunite here in this format for Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. From my limited research, Abbott had been working on the play with director Jeff Ward when Sam Rockwell attached himself as producer (so cool!), and Abbott felt that Plaza would bring the right stuff for the role. He was right. I can’t think of a better project for two awesome actors to get involved with during the strike. As a two-person play, it’s really all on their shoulders, and I can tell you that they delivered. Obviously it must be doing well, too, because Abbott just shared on Instagram the day I got back that the show is getting extended into January.
The play itself let’s us meet Danny and Roberta in a relatively empty bar in the Bronx sometime during the holiday season. Danny is a bit animalistic in his mannerisms and also reveals that he’s prone to violence rather than reason in most situations. Roberta is a recently divorced woman who feels guilty that her son is being cared for mainly by her parents. Danny isn’t understood by his co-workers and is distrustful of most people, while Roberta still reels from a disturbing sexual encounter from her past which makes her distrustful of men. That’s likely why she’s divorced, but loneliness and ultimately intrigue are what prompts her to strike up a conversation with Danny in the bar.
They are both fully reluctant of each other, but also drawn to each other in a way that leads them to Roberta’s bedroom for the night. There’s a very interesting love-making scene that is mainly choreography, but it’s the conversation that drives this play forward. With only two set pieces, we are catching these two vulnerable humans in intimate quarters that both invigorate and scare them. Everything that ends up transpiring is a bit fast an unrealistic for one night if you ask me, but I do hope that everything works out well for these two in the end. Perhaps there was enough cathartic truth-telling to wipe the slate clean for them both.
Overall, it wasn’t the best play I’ve seen out there, but I love these two actors so much that I would really watch them do anything. The show seems to be generating a lot of buzz and is getting some high-profile audience members in attendance, so if you can snag some tickets – do it!