Patti Lupone, as the imperious impresario Irene, shines in the Lincoln Center production of “Shows for Days” at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in New York. But is the nimble and delightful young Michael Urie, playing Car, a stage-struck suburbanite, (best known to many of us as Josh in “The Good Wife”), who totally steals the show.
When a playwright looks back at his beginnings in the theater and decides to chronicle those experiences in a play, all sorts of things can happen. If you’re Douglas Carter Beane, it’s bound to bring a measure of gimlet-eyed reflection, a large dollop of self-deprecation and a heaping dose of hilarity. That mix is exactly the charm of his new play, SHOWS FOR DAYS.
It’s May 1973 when a young man wanders into a dilapidated community theater in Reading, PA. The company members welcome him — well, perhaps only because they need a set painter that day. He then proceeds to soak up all the idealism and the craziness that comes with being part of a struggling theater company with big dreams. And as we know, Douglas Carter Beane made those dreams come true as the author of The Nance for LCT, as well as Sister Act, The Little Dog Laughed, As Bees In Honey Drown, and many others.
In the role of the playwright is Michael Urie, who spent most of last season off-Broadway in Barbra Streisand’s basement in Buyer & Cellar, to great acclaim. The supreme impresario of the company, Irene, is played by the extraordinary two-time Tony® winner Patti LuPone, who was featured in LCT’s Anything Goes, and Women on the Verge… among many others. (For those who watched “Ugly Betty” on tv a few years back, you’ll particularly enjoy the reunion of Patti and Michael who played mother and son!)
To top it all off, we are thrilled to welcome back Jerry Zaks, the marvelous director and four-time Tony® winner, who took many of LCT’s earliest shows to their peaks: Anything Goes, The House of Blue Leaves, The Front Page, and Six Degrees of Separation.