‘Becky Shaw’ Is a Bracingly Funny Battle of the Sexes That Defies Stereotypes

Madeline Brewer looks like trouble. With her blazing blue eyes and sharp but delicate features, the stage and screen actress, most widely known for her role in Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” can suggest a beautiful, wounded bird or a vulture keenly zeroing in on her prey, and this duality, along with her flair for dark comedy, makes her an ideal choice for the title part in “Becky Shaw.”Gina Gionfriddo’s bracingly funny and often provocative play made her a Pulitzer Prize finalist back in 2009. In its Broadway premiere, Ms. Brewer is part of an impeccably selected ensemble of players, and under Trip Cullman’s direction, they serve the material with just the right mix of ferocity and discretion.The first characters we meet are Max Garrett and Suzanna Slater, respectively played by Alden Ehrenreich, whose movie credits range from “Cocaine Bear” to “Oppenheimer,” and Lauren Patten, a Tony Award winner for her performance in the musical “Jagged Little Pill.”Suzanna and Max have essentially been raised as siblings since he lost his mother at the age of ten. Now both are in their mid-thirties, and while Max has at least found material success as a financial advisor, Suzanna appears to be floundering on all fronts. Months after her father’s death, she lies in bed at a New York hotel room that Max has paid for, lamenting the loss even as her mother, Susan, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, has moved on to a new, younger boyfriend, a wanna-be filmmaker whom Max sums up as “a sort of…alternative redneck.”Max’s primary task is to alert both women — Susan joins them for a bit — that they need to start living more frugally. Neither are easily convinced; Susan, played with deadpan wit by a typically marvelous Linda Emond, is particularly stubborn. After she leaves, the conversation between the younger characters, which has been blunt and spicy from the start, gradually veers in a different direction.All this activity basically serves as prologue, with the next scene unfolding eight months later at an apartment in Providence, Rhode Island. Suzanna is now married to Andrew Porter, a Brown graduate and struggling writer who appears to be the antithesis of Max: sensitive, unfailingly attentive, the kind of guy who uses terms like “transitional life space” without irony. Patrick Ball, a star of HBO Max’s “The Pitt,” doesn’t overplay these qualities, making Andrew both credible and amusing. It’s Andrew who arranges a blind date between Max and Becky, setting into motion a chain of events that will upend all the relationships in the play, with the exception of Susan’s budding romance, which inevitably takes its own tumble. (We never meet the alternative redneck, whose name is Lester, but we hear about some of his misadventures.)Ms. Gionfriddo’s writing seems to aim for shock value at times; Susan and Max in particular say things that may make your jaw drop, and would get anyone who uttered them in real life promptly canceled. But more than 15 years after its debut, “Becky Shaw” also offers a refreshingly nuanced view of how different men and women behave, posing honest questions about what drives them both independently and to each other.Max may seem emotionally unavailable and insufferably pompous — at times, Mr. Ehrenreich’s hilarious performance put me in mind of Tucker Carlson — but he can also be vulnerable, just as Mr. Ball’s Andrew can show a gentle but genuine strength that defies beta male stereotypes.Similarly, for all her ridiculous and off-putting remarks, Susan offers flashes of a certain practical wisdom towards the end, which are exquisitely served by Ms. Emond. And Ms. Patten brings an unfussy grit to Suzanna, who emerges to some extent as most impacted by the others’ foibles, and most patently capable of growth.The most elusive character in “Becky Shaw” is Becky herself, and the less said about her the better, at least if you’re avoiding spoilers. Suffice it to say that Ms. Brewer mines this alluring, frustrating enigma for all its humor and horror; the portrait is a perfect puzzle piece in a production that will leave you entertained and intrigued throughout.

‘Becky Shaw’ Is a Bracingly Funny Battle of the Sexes That Defies Stereotypes

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