‘Good Time Charlie’ Is All Heart

In his program note for Ryan J. Haddad’s new, autobiographical play, “Good Time Charlie,” now running off-Broadway at the Public Theater, the Public’s artistic director Oskar Eustis writes, “Ryan is a gay, disabled, Lebanese American theater artist. Each of these identities informs the other, and Ryan has alchemically integrated them into an artist unlike any other.”It’s certainly true that these elements have been integral in the spare, sometimes solo pieces, among them “Hold Me in the Water” and the Obie Award-winning “Dark Disabled Stories,” that have established Mr. Haddad, who has cerebral palsy and uses a walker onstage, as a rising playwright and performer in recent years. But what makes his new, larger-scale play winning, ultimately, is that it emphasizes community over intersectionality.If “Charlie” has a principal flaw, in fact, it’s how sentimental Mr. Haddad, who plays himself as a boy and a younger man — he’s not yet 35 — can get in portraying the family and friends who informed his development as an artist and a person. They include the title character, his Uncle Charlie, also a gay man who adored theater and dreamed of a career in it.Presented as a play within a play, “Charlie” examines how, while its subject never realized his artistic aspirations, he summoned the courage to forge a fulfilling personal life, despite the considerable objections of his parents. Mr. Haddad sets the two-act piece up as a struggle between his character, Ryan, who has written a script emphasizing the darker aspects of that conflict, and Charlie, who as the title suggests would prefer not to go there.Director Danny Sharron, also Mr. Haddad’s collaborator on “Water,” has assembled a charming cast to follow their journey, which the playwright charts with occasionally hokey humor and what some audience members might perceive as oversharing. There are graphic references to the various characters’ sexual adventures and lack thereof; even conversations between Ryan and his mom and dad can get a little spicy — or, as the kids say, cringey, depending on your perspective.In contrast, the parts of “Charlie” that I found most moving were those that study the emotional camaraderie among different generations of gay men. There’s also a lesbian, Ryan’s Aunt Janice, played by a delightful Beth Malone, an alumna of Broadway’s “Fun Home,” one of numerous musicals, plays, and films that figure into both inside jokes and more extensive exchanges that will be manna for theater and classic movie fans.Michael Cristofer delivers a standout performance as Sheldon, a historian on such matters and a friend of Charlie’s partner, Lou, who emerges as a sort of mentor to Charlie and, later, Ryan. As the wry, professorial elder statesman of their group, Sheldon also helps introduce mortality as another significant subject in the play, and Mr. Cristofer brings both a rugged wit and the necessary poignance to the part.Nael Nacer and Artemis Pebdani adroitly juggle the roles of Ryan’s and Charlie’s parents, who react in very different ways when their sons come out, and Tim Bagley exudes a gentle, forbearing strength as Lou, a self-professed homebody who acts as a loving foil to Sheldon; at one point, Charlie wonders if it’s possible to have one person as your soul mate and another as the love of your life.Jonathan Raviv in ‘Good Time Charlie.’ Joan MarcusOf course, the driving relationship in “Good Time Charlie” is the one between Ryan and his uncle, and as Charlie, Jonathan Raviv, who has proven a supple and likeable actor in several off-Broadway productions, manages an easy and touching rapport with Mr. Haddad as their characters alternately chafe against and hold up one another.It’s this duality that makes Mr. Haddad’s latest effort so accessible and so endearing in the end, regardless of your family or individual background.

‘Good Time Charlie’ Is All Heart

‘Good Time Charlie’ Is All Heart

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