#THE MINUTES STUDIO 54 SERIES#

Photo: Jeremy Daniel 2022īuried deep in the tedious process of how these meetings run, the grandstanding trudges forward almost unapologetically dull in its tight structuring, but it is also utterly captivating in its combustible energy-building. JESSIE MUELLER, NOAH REID, JEFF STILL, TRACY LETTS, and CLIFF CHAMBERLAIN in TRACY LETTS’ The Minutes on Broadway. Yet, where are those minutes? And why can’t he read them? Why isn’t his question being answered? He can’t even get an answer from the clerk whose responsibilities include recording each meeting’s minutes. Questions start to pile up on top of one another.

And with each time he asks the question, his tension escalates, as does ours. Peel, a seemingly good-natured friendly man, albeit an outsider, can’t seem to get all of those frustrating non-answers out of his curious brain. Peel just can’t seem to get a straight answer as to why one of the elected members of the city council isn’t present for this week’s meeting. Perfectly portrayed by the engaging Noah Reid of “ Schitt’s Creek” fame, Mr. And a vacant seat in the half-circle of seated officials keeps pushing the question forward, and reminding us that it needs to be answered. Odd, cause something must have, you see, or the dismissals wouldn’t be so blunt nor the answers so so vague. Yet no one seems to want to tell him what went down. You see, he missed last week’s meeting because of his mother’s burial, so he’s curious, as he heard some chatter in the parking lot. Johnson, played simply and most fascinatingly by the very-on-her-game Jessie Mueller (Broadway’s Waitress Carousel). He asks it to the overworked, very dehydrated town clerk, a Ms. That one question is asked at first casually by a naive freshman to the group, a Mr. There is tension in the room though, and it all sits around the one big question of the night, a question that floats up high in that well crafted space impeccably designed by David Zinn (Broadway’s Funny Girl). But its clear he has some bigger fish to fry, but the groundwork needs to be laid out and the players need to make sure their masks are in place before we can really do the deep dive. Photo: Jeremy Daniel 2022Īll pretty dull stuff, you might say and you wouldn’t be all that incorrect, as Lett’s doesn’t shy away from the minutia of the meeting’s moments. JEFF STILL, TRACY LETTS, and CLIFF CHAMBERLAIN in TRACY LETTS’ The Minutes on Broadway.

#THE MINUTES STUDIO 54 SERIES#

With a wild little reinactment thrown in for some fun (or is it just for fun?), the seats are filled by these town representatives, and a series of events within the meeting start to unfold as they should, as planned, at least for the time being.

Stolen bikes are discussed, as well as a major redesign of the town park, with the center piece being a statue commemorating the history of the town itself.

It’s a pretty simple set-up though, almost to the bitter twisted end, give or take. Naturally, the name of the town, and really everyone in this well formulated play has an undercurrent of meaning, but it is on that night when a dozen or so elected members float in, one by one, for its weekly city council meeting to discuss all that is on the list to discuss when things really do get messy. It’s a dark and stormy evening in Big Cherry, the town at the center of the play. He might tease us all with the interior concepts and ideals that will be unmasked, but don’t get too comfortable thinking this is going to be straight forward. And even then, you’ll have to do some processing to decide how you see it all went down. Letts isn’t going to let you see what’s there, right before our eyes, until he wants you too. Don’t take that too literally, because the play itself, wrapped in sharp situational wit and humor, isn’t some obvious thread, but a much slyer tumultuous experience. Letts not only wrote this fascinating play but also takes somewhat center stage playing Mayor Superba, head honcho at this small town city council meeting where the play all takes place, and makes his mark in the dynamics as black and blood red as humanly possible. Which, once again is a god-sent, if you ask me. I should have known had I really looked at the poster art on the marquee of Studio 54 for Broadway’s The Minutes, what this superb piece of writing by the fantastically gifted playwright and actor, Tracey Letts ( Mary Page Marlowe August: Osage County Man From Nebraska) was aiming itself at.

The minutes studio 54