Man and Boy

This Saturday my parents and I seized upon the opportunity to see Frank Langella in Man and Boy on Broadway. I know I'm blogging late, get used to it.

This play looks at the complex relationship between a corrupt financier and his estranged son who still worships him even though he won't admit it.  And man o man is the dad a jerk.  He actually uses his son as a lure to get a closeted rival to agree to a merger from which he plans to steal $6 million.  Yeah, he's a real nice guy.  But the thing is the play isn't really about that.  Which is remarkable for a play written in the early 1960s that features the casual acknowledgement of homosexuality.  It's really about what it means to grow up and the relationship between a son and a father.  Lets just say this isn't really the healthiest of father/son relationships.  At one point Gregor Antonescu (the father) tells his son's girlfriend that the most important words are about truth and falsehood and - at it's heart - his relationships with his son and to a lesser extent his bodyguard/right-hand-man revolve around the difference between sharing everything and nothing.  His relationships hinge not on love, he actually finds the love of a son dangerous to his way of life, but on his truthfulness.  All in all it was a really interesting and fantastically acted play that was remarkably topical for a play written in 1961 and set in 1930.  Stepping away from my more literary analysis, the plot is very reminiscent of the Bernie Madoff scandal.

It's worth saying that the set is really cool too.  It's set in a basement apartment in the Village and it is really realistically set.  It's built really well and it really enhances the theater-going experience.  One interesting choice the director made was to have some of the actors walk back and forth on a raised platform meant to simulate the sidewalk to create the impression that the actors were really in a city with people going about their business as a financial empire imploded beneath them.  I thought it was a really nice, subtle touch.

So all in all, I would really recommend the show to you. I think it's still in previews or at least hasn't been reviewed yet, otherwise I would share with you the views of the New York Times theater reviewers; but sadly that is not to be the case.  When the review comes out I'll post it in the comments.