Home, Not-So-Sweet, Home: Back Where It Began, 'The Humans' Remains Believable, If Not "Unbelievable!" -- Chicago Theater Review

Theater Review

The Humans

a play by Stephen Karam

directed by Joe Mantello

National tour

Cadillac Palace, Chicago

Thru February 11

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At the very end of 2014, I saw a world premiere play called The Humans at Chicago's American Theater Co. in North Center.

Written by Stephen Karam and directed by ATC artistic director PJ Paparelli--who would tragically die just months later in a car accident in Scotland--the play received strong raves, most profusely from Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones.

And I think when I saw it, plans were already underway for it to be produced on Broadway under the direction of Tony-winner Joe Mantello.

As I wrote in my @@@@ (out of 5) review, I found the play to be excellent--well-written, well-paced, well-acted--but in its depiction of a family bickering over a relatively intimate Thanksgiving dinner in a Manhattan apartment, not quite phenomenal.

Since then, The Humans ran on Broadway for nearly a year--after bowing Off-Broadway--and won four 2016 Tony awards, including Best Play.

Photo credit on all: Julieta Cervantes

It's now on the highest-profile national tour for a non-musical play since War Horse more than 5 years ago.

And, through Sunday, back in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace.

Based on my seat being upgraded, for free, from near the back of the upper balcony to the very first row on the main floor, it seems that The Humans isn't quite filling the cavernous theaters.

But there were more than enough humans present in the second week of the Chicago tour stop to be rather impressive.

Just that a play with local origins went on to such high-profile success, on Broadway and nationally, makes me happy and proud as an avid supporter of the Windy City's arts community. And it's also nice to note how The Humans carries on the legacy of Paparelli, though oddly his name can't be found anywhere in the Playbill for the touring edition, directed as on Broadway by Mantello.

As with the ATC production, Chris Jones gave this rendition 4 stars (out of 4 on the Tribune's scale), and I was hoping I would be more enchanted that I had previously been.

But I wasn't. 

Which perhaps unnecessarily puts a negative-seeming slant on a play I very much enjoyed.

Maybe even more than I appreciated--as The Humans has a somewhat mysterious, even supernatural bent beyond what I clearly comprehended--the 90-minute one-act dramedy is deftly scripted by Karam.

As Brigid Blake (Daisy Eagan) welcomes her Scranton, PA family to a rather modest Thanksgiving dinner in the lower Manhattan duplex apartment she shares with boyfriend Rich (Luis Vega), the familial circumstances and conversations are certainly charged enough to hold one's interest.

Brigid's parents, Erik and Deirdre (Richard Thomas, once famed as John Boy Walton, and Pamela Reed, who I recognized from the Schwarzenegger film Kindergarten Cop) are initially a bit tight-lipped about the specifics, but one instantly senses some unrest about their economic well-being and other aspects later revealed.

Aimee (Therese Plaehn) is Brigid's sister, a lesbian and lawyer with a concerning health issue and problems in both her romantic and professional life.

The Blakes also bring with them Erik's wheelchair-bound and largely incoherent, Alzheimer's-striken mom, affectionately called Momo (Lauren Klein). That she is sheathed in a Philadelphia Eagles blanket made for a sight-gag presumably never before so nifty, coming--in real-life--just two days after the team won its first Super Bowl.

Neither Brigid nor Rich are robustly employed yet have fairly recently moved into an apartment that--even just as scaled upon the Palace stage--seems as if it would rent for more than $3,000/mo. (based an a quick check on units near Manhattan's Chinatown, as the play purports it to be).

Revelations about Richard's finances, which I won't delve into, make for a compelling part of the dialogue, especially given the contrast with Erik, long the equipment manager at a high school.

With Deirdre chiding Brigid about not being married, and some other family sparring as Rich prepares the meal, The Humans walks that line of feeling too much like real-life to seem a brilliantly incisive play, and featuring too many overtly dramatic moments to feel like a real family, especially on just one given day.

There's considerable quality--including in how it's staged and performed here--but whatever it is that has enormously smitten Chris Jones, repeatedly, as well as Tony Award voters, seems not to have connected quite so powerfully with me.

Given that, for my Chicago readers, there are few performances left to catch it here, this would seem a fine play to see nicely rendered a few years down the road at one of our myriad marvelous local theaters.

Such as where The Humans first came into existence.

'The Humans' Provide Compelling, Not Supernatural, Holiday Dinner Conversation -- Chicago Theater Review

Theater Review

The Humans

a world premiere play by Stephen Karam

directed by PJ Paparelli

American Theater Company, Chicago

Thru February 1

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Like any other form of beauty, theatrical transcendence is clearly in the eye of the beholder. 

Which isn't to imply that the play I'm reviewing, The Humans, in a world premiere production at Chicago's American Theater Co. ahead of a mounting next fall on Broadway, isn't one that I found enjoyable, entertaining, engrossing, enriching, excellent and, yes, even beautiful.

But I saw it, feeling I needed to, at full price ($43, still rather reasonable for a first-rate new play) amidst a mostly sold out run, because the Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones gave it 4 stars (out of 4) and named it his #1 show of 2014.

As I expounded on rather extensively as part of my July review of a terrific play called Exit Strategy, which I also saw because he highly lauded it, Chris Jones is by far the theater critic I read and trust most.

His praise has elicited me to see many shows I wouldn't have otherwise, and while I haven't always agreed with him entirely, I am completely grateful for the plays he has pointed me to.

All three parts of the preceding sentence are true here.

I found The Humans well-written and excellently performed. I'm glad I saw it and--while I wouldn't insist as vehemently as other critics or about other plays--I recommend it.

But, though I actually respect Jones' critical assessments far more than my own, I can't give The Humans my highest rating (or even @@@@1/2) and won't have it near the very top when I post my list of "Best Plays I Saw in 2014" in the coming days.

Essentially a 90-minute, real-time Thanksgiving dinner conversation, it is quite estimable, even excellent, but it just didn't feel phenomenal.

To me.

The framework of the play is that two empty nest parents who live in Scranton, PA--which years back had represented an escape from New York--come to come to Thanksgiving dinner at their daughter Brigid's new Manhattan apartment, which she shares with her newly live-in boyfriend. They bring the father's wheelchair bound, Alzheimer's stricken mother, and are also joined by another daughter, Aimee, a lawyer and lesbian who lives in Philadelphia.

Thanks to the script by Stephen Karam and a wonderful cast, the characters and conversation feel quite believable--for the most part.

I imagine the dynamic and discussions in The Humans are likely less dramatic or tempestuous than many real ones had over Thanksgiving turkey.

But, understandably, for narrative purposes, Karam seems to compress many years' worth of typical family drama--financial problems, illnesses, fledgling romances, breakups, infidelities, aging, dementia, career angst, personal wrongdoings, etc.--into a single hour-and-a-half conversation.

At the play's best--or perhaps worst--moments, the tension is palpable and each word riveting.

This is clearly a quality piece of writing, and as the father, Keith Kupferer is especially good. The Humans is actually the third show I've seen him in this year, and that I consider it the lesser of the three says a whole lot about the work Kupferer is getting and doing.

Kelly O'Sullivan and Sadieh Rifai as Brigid and Aimee feel quite genuine as sisters despite looking nothing alike, while Hanna Dworkin believably imbues their mother with a wide range of emotions.

Lance Baker is also strong as Brigid's boyfriend and Jean Moran does a terrific job playing the out-of-sorts grandmother.

So in no way do I mean to assert that there is anything particularly deficient about The Humans.

I imagine most who see it will find it remarkable, and perhaps all too relatable.

And in a weirdly convoluted way, that I wasn't quite floored by it may bespeak that The Humans is actually better than I thought. That it feels real, with some amped-up drama but no August: Osage County hysterics, likely suggests just how truly well it is written and performed.

So even if it doesn't feel all that nouveau, consequential or like the best play I saw in 2014 (or even within a span of four days), The Humans is/are worth getting to know.