Grangeville

[skynyc]

Another play to highly recommend.  Grangeville by Samuel Hunter is opening tonight at the Signature on 42nd St.

Hunter wrote among others, The Whale, which when filmed won Brendon Fraser the Oscar. Hunter excels in creating broken individuals who are desperately in need of something...and usually leaves us with a sense of hope, that they may find it. His Little Bear Ridge Road played in Chicago last Summer and was my favorite new play of the year. 

Grangeville stars Paul Sparks and Brian J. Smith, both recognizable from stage and screen. Smith played the hot Chicago cop in 2 seasons of Sens-8 and won a Tony nomination as the Gentleman Caller in the Cherry Jones Glass Menagerie. Sparks was in Boardwalk Empire and House of Cards and many others and was in the original Take Me Out on Broadway. Both performers are extraordinary, playing a estranged stepbrothers dealing with the passing of their mother. 

Show is a taut 90 minutes with no intermission...I expect it will extend by a week or two after the reviews come out. this one affected my entirely party differently. Growing up gay in rural Idaho, which is a recurring theme in Hunter's work (since he grew up gay in rural Idaho) only scratches the surface.