HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE Previews

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 3/28/22 at 12:01am

Start your engines.

At last, Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive will have its Broadway premiere. Performances rev up tomorrow night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, with an April 19 opening night currently scheduled. Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse lead the company; rounding out the cast are Johanna Day, Alyssa May Gold, and Chris Myers. Mark Brokaw directs the production, which will play a limited engagement through May 29.

I’ve read this play before for a couple of classes but currently have no plans to see it (yet?).

“Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse are joined by Johanna Day, Alyssa May Gold, and Chris Myers in this remarkably timely and moving memory play about a woman coming to terms with a charismatic uncle who impacts her past, present, and future life.”

Who’s going for a drive?

Updated On: 3/28/22 at 12:01 AM

[ATerrifyingAndImposingFigure]

Posted: 3/28/22 at 3:03am

Not familiar with the work, but this has caught my eye. Love that the original director and leads are back for the Broadway premiere, age be damned. Anyone here see the original Off Broadway work?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/28/22 at 9:37am

Going next Sunday. This re-mount with the same actors is a brilliant idea. Many forget that Vogel originally altered the text slightly to serve Parker's youth. The playwright intended the memory prism to work best with an older actor in the role looking back. It's explained in the published text. So rather than a particular kind of stunt, if a wonderful one, the production's prominent selling point is actually a return to the play's conceptual intentions. I read the script again during the pandemic. The culture has changed a great deal since the original. The Me Too movement and our general awareness of abuse has made the story both more immediate and in some ways more familiar. But the play's technique is complex and -- no spoilers -- the story isn't simply set forth to turn the abuser into a carboard villain. The emotional relationship is given amplification, informing the behavior in nuanced ways. Can't wait to see it. 

[east side story]

Posted: 3/28/22 at 10:08am

I adore MLP, and I am thrilled she has refocused so much of her career on stage work over the last few years. I recently bought tickets for the end of April.
 

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 3/28/22 at 11:10am

I loved the Butz production years ago at Second Stage and can’t wait to return to this show with its original cast. 

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 3/28/22 at 11:28am

I have read the play and admire it, but I don’t think I can sit thru it. As a childhood victim of sexual abuse, I just don’t think I can sit thru it, much as I respect all involved.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 3/28/22 at 1:31pm

I saw the Second Stage production several years ago as well. It's a good play but extremely heavy and difficult to watch. Not sure if I will see this again, though I'm sure the production will be amazing.

 

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 3/28/22 at 3:54pm

I’m seeing it April 27th, so I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes on this thread. This is probably the show I’m most excited for this season. I remember just sobbing when I read the play for the first time. It totally knocked me out. And now to be able to see it with the original leads feels so surreal.

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 3/29/22 at 1:10am

I will be there on thursday!

[UWS10023]

Posted: 3/29/22 at 1:08pm

I saw it at the Vineyard and thought it was outstanding.

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 3/29/22 at 9:02pm

Did anyone go tonight? Showtime was 7:00 and MTC lists the running time as 100 minutes, no intermission. 

[JaredBway]

Posted: 3/29/22 at 9:10pm

I really want to see this however my April trip is booked solid.  I really wish more Broadway shows did non traditional performance schedules.  Throw me a Thursday matinee instead of the typical Wednesday.  

[InTheBathroom1]

Posted: 3/29/22 at 9:23pm

I was there tonight and the timing is exactly right. Started at about 7:05 and was out at 8:45. 

This was my first experience with the play and thought it was quite remarkable. Just a solidly built, engaging script. The production is pretty bare bones but it doesn’t need to be anything fancy. It’s really about the performances here which are uniformly wonderful. Mary-Louise Parker is truly a wonder to behold. I feel like we’ve seen this trend of older actors playing young characters (Kimberly Akimbo, Birthday Candles) and this is by far my favorite. So nuanced and never a caricature. 
There were a couple of line flubs and minor things but that’ll be fixed up in previews. If you’ve never seen before, this is a must see. 

Updated On: 3/31/22 at 09:23 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/29/22 at 10:18pm

Going Sunday. Can’t wait.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 3/31/22 at 12:11am

I saw this tonight for the first time and have to agree that all the performances are outstanding.  I recently read the play so I expected the portrayal of the non-linear memories.  Minimal but effective set design and lighting.  It’s hauntingly not disturbing because of the non-linear approach.  We are fortunate to have such wonderful theater artists back. 

[MadsonMelo]

Posted: 3/31/22 at 11:00pm

Im stunned by this show, its an effective and clean production that trust the text and the actors. Vogel’s ability to symbolis is so powerful, took me some minutes to really understand where she was going.

The cast is great, Day had an amazing monologue, but Morse and Parker are simply sublime. He had a powerful moment in the end, and one of the last scenes of Parker, with no words, is perfection.

Loved it!

[ElephantLoveMedley]

Posted: 3/31/22 at 11:16pm

Could Mary-Louise Parker be on her way to her third Tony? Is she the frontrunner for Lead Actress in a Play this year? 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 3/31/22 at 11:32pm

ElephantLoveMedley said: "Could Mary-Louise Parker be on her way to her third Tony? Is she the frontrunner for Lead Actress in a Play this year?"

Didi O'Connell seems like the only other performance even remotely close to win-worthy (having not seen Drive or some other contenders). Other contenders would be Ruth Negga, Debra Messing, SJP, LaChanze, and Emily Davis. Possibly someone from POTUS? Skin of Our Teeth wouldn't have anyone in Lead, right?

Kind of a thin category this year, compared to the Elaine May year.

[ATerrifyingAndImposingFigure]

Posted: 4/1/22 at 1:10am

I mean it currently looks to me like Louise Parker and Morse are probably gonna win. On paper it seemed like Craig might’ve challenged the latter, but unless if reactions wildly change for his performance he won’t even be nominated.

[KingOfTheMine]

Posted: 4/2/22 at 11:12pm

Seeing this piece tonight was my first introduction to the play itself and Paula Vogel's work more broadly, and I was totally floored by it.  The play is complex, and the nonlinear structure allows Vogel to oscillate between disturbing and disarming content.  It's a simple production, but extremely effective in that it doesn't get in the way of the script.  Parker and Morse are both giving extraordinary performances.  For both of them, actor and character blend so seamlessly that you don't see the acting.  You just see the characters there on the stage in front of you.  I completely agree that they should be considered the Tony frontrunners at this point in the season.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/3/22 at 5:44pm

There this afternoon. Heartbreaking revival, exquisitely acted by Parker, Morse, and Day. Vogel’s compassion for all of her characters imbues the story with such humanity. And since it’s a memory piece, the story’s presentation is enhanced by the actors’ maturity. We are gathered for an unreliable narrator’s complex recollections; the age of the protagonist gives the acquired wisdom in the epiphanies greater weight, arguably raising the stakes. Morse Is especially poignant, so expertly capturing this tortured man’s self awareness and tamped down guilt. Parker’s transformation into an adolescent and finally a child is so persuasive, it’s theatrical alchemy. What seemed stunt casting to some remints a wonderful play, adding layers. 

Updated On: 4/3/22 at 05:44 PM

[CityLights3]

Posted: 4/5/22 at 9:45am

Having read the play 20 years ago and having seen the Second Stage production 10 years ago,  I was trepidatious going into this again.  What a fool I was.  This production of this play is outstanding and frankly, should be shown to theatre students in universities across the globe.  This production, be it simple yet thought provokingly poignant, proves two things.  1) “The play’s the thing.”  Paula Vogels work here is one of the best Pulitzer Prize decisions the committee has made.  2) When actors do more than act, present, and perform, but literally transcend into characters who obviously live in their bones, there’s no higher superlative one can bestow.  Not being the biggest Mary Louise Parker fan to begin with, boy did I get schooled.  Just sensational here.  What she and David Morse do with this material all these years later only benefits the play and gives its audience a sensational hour and 40ish minutes of theatre.  Add me to the chorus who would make MLP only the 7th performer to win back to back Tonys, and only the 2nd to win lead actress in a play back to back (Shirley Booth being the only other.)   David Morse has stronger competition, but he’d get my vote too.  And Johanna Day has competition galore in featured actress but her turn here shouldn’t be ignored.

[mattmarkowski99]

Posted: 4/6/22 at 7:20pm

How are the views from the far side aisles in the Orchestra?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/6/22 at 8:48pm

I was off a far aisle, but back fairly far. The show is blocked to consistently place the action downstage. It's almost always center, and the presentational narrative is on the apron edge, played to the full house effectively. I'd take close seats to be in proximity to these performances. They are remarkable.. 

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 4/8/22 at 9:05am

We saw this on Saturday thru TKTS.  7th row, left side, 5-6 seats from aisle.  We had seen the 2nd Stage version 10 years ago, and I think if I remembered it better before we chose this we would have passed.


It is SO well written and acted, but the subject matter is very hard to get through.  We thought this version was better because Morse wasn't as creepy as Butz was.  You saw Butz you saw an awful person.  Morse has moments here where you feel bad for him and then that gets turned right around.

 

See it, but be prepared for feelings.