Will Arbery's CORSICANA at Playwrights Horizons

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 4/14/22 at 10:46pm

Runs June 2 to July 10

Written by Will Arbery
Directed by Sam Gold

In Corsicana, a small city in Texas, a woman with Down syndrome named Ginny and her half-brother Christopher are unmoored in the wake of their mother's death. Their close family friend, Justice, introduces them to a local artist named Lot, a recluse and outsider, hoping that he and Ginny can make a song together. That that'll help somehow. In this restless quartet about care-taking and care-giving, in which the very fabric of reality is up for debate, Will Arbery charts the quiet, particular contracts of the heart that forge a new family.

Featuring:

 Jamie Brewer

 Will Dagger

 Deirdre O'Connell

 Harold Surratt

https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway/article/Playwrights-Horizons-to-Present-the-World-Premiere-of-Will-Arberys-CORSICANA-20220414

 

Updated On: 4/14/22 at 10:46 PM

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 4/14/22 at 10:48pm

Happy that Jamie will be back onstage after a great performance in this little show at Roundabout a few years ago

 

also Will Dagger was excellent in The Antelope Party

[annang]

Posted: 5/8/22 at 1:53am

If I loved (like, would put it in my top 5 favorite plays ever) Heroes, will I love this as much?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/8/22 at 9:25am

annang said: "If I loved (like, would put it in my top 5 favorite plays ever) Heroes, will I love this as much?"

 

This is a world premiere, and it hasn't started performances yet. So none of us can provide insight on it yet, unfortunately!

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 5/8/22 at 9:34am

FYI, I noticed a very specific glitch(?) when I was buying my ticket the other day. For Saturday and Sunday preview performances, orchestra seats D 5-7 are priced at $44, which is $15-$30 less than all other seats in the section, and the same price as rows K and L, the last two rows in the theatre. After previews, the same row D seats go up to $99. 

[annang]

Posted: 5/26/22 at 3:12pm

Anyone have even the slightest estimate what the running time of this would be? Website is silent. Which makes it really hard to make travel plans!!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 5/26/22 at 3:30pm

Anyone else know Corsicana because of Cheer on Netflix?

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/5/22 at 5:02pm

Any reports on this yet?

[VotePeron]

Posted: 6/5/22 at 6:07pm

I caught it this weekend, and it ran 2:45. It's a tough sit with extreme pacing issues due to the volume of material all these performers (except Deirdre O'Connell) have to recite. 

Not sure how to describe it, as it's basically 4 people from the town of Coriscana who all, for their own reasons, struggle with loving and being loved. Deirdre O'Connell is resigned to be the audience stand in, with all the characters one by one professing their problems to her throughout the show and she acts as a sort of therapist. She has some good material at towards the end, but getting there is a drag. They're all very complex characters, and the profound moments are really touching. Unfortunately, they're few and far between because so, so much of this needs script to be cut.

There were a lot of disgruntled older audience members around me commenting around the 2:15 mark that they couldn't believe it wasn't over, etc. These continued throughout other groups as well. It's also one of the few shows I've seen that didn't have an immediate standing ovation, except for those leaving. 

Also, a huge portion of the play takes place downstage left, so if you are seated on house left I recommend switching seats. 

Updated On: 6/5/22 at 06:07 PM

[sweetepy389]

Posted: 6/7/22 at 12:42am

Oh no... I saw it this weekend and I might have been one of those disgruntled audience members. 

I do my absolute best to be a polite, respectful audience member at all times. Even if I'm really not enjoying a show, I would never want to be disrespectful to the performers or distracting to fellow audience members, but apparently I was not hiding my struggle particularly well at this show because my friend told me he could feel the rage emanating off of me throughout the second act. It just kept going and going and going and going, with (what felt like to me) absolutely no progress or movement or momentum in terms of a plot or structure or narrative. Honestly - it's the closest I've been to walking out of a show mid-performance because I was starting to feel panicky because I felt like I had lost all sense of time.

Anyway, I agree whole heartedly with your comments regarding the show. The only thing I'd add is that I did think Jamie Brewer, and really all of the cast, gave lovely performances. It was just hard to remember to appreciate that aspect - if that makes sense. My friend and I also thought the staging/directing was very clunky which I think served to exacerbate or highlight the pacing issues.

Updated On: 6/7/22 at 12:42 AM

[Theater3232]

Posted: 6/7/22 at 11:27pm

The audience I was at loved it (tons of laughter) and it got a standing ovation from 95% of the audience. I wouldn't call any of the speeches "monologues"; instead they're a 5 to 10 minute poignant conversation with another character about the pain they're going through (and the other character does interject throughout). 

(Mild spoilers in this paragraph): We hear all about the pain of each of the characters. One who was thrown out of school for an incident that was misunderstood during childhood, another whose mistaken words as a child caused a lot of pain to another character, another who's lost and trying to make it as an adult, and finally another who has a secret crush on another character and was afraid to say so for a while.

Hearing Jamie Brewer sing was very touching, and of course the final song where one person sang the folk song one-at-a-time was quite catchy and moving as well.  Show ran just over 2 hours 30 minutes including the intermission.  Didn't feel long at all to me.

Cast was outstanding: I feel so privileged I can just get on a subway and get to see people like Jamie Brewer (from American Horror Story) and one of my favorite actresses Deirdre O'Connell (who was mesmerizing in Dana H).  The other 2 actors were great as well, and all 4 seemed genuinely moved that the audience was cheering so loudly with a standing ovation at curtain call.

[Pashacar]

Posted: 6/8/22 at 1:47pm

I saw this last night and my audience was somewhere in between the two. Plenty of laughter, not much frustration I sensed, and about half immediately stood at curtain call. That said, I did get the sense some of the standees were doing it as sort of a sympathy move because of Brewer's Down's Syndrome, as so many people were "aww"ing at so much of what she did or said throughout – which I'd argue means they missed a major point of the play.... Speaking of Brewer, she dropped a few lines about halfway through the second act, which seemed to set the rest of the performance a bit off kilter.

Anyhow, there is SO MUCH beauty here. Even more beauty and profundity than Heroes, which is my favorite play in years. Unfortunately, that beauty comes in smallish moments, and the rest of the piece does not do those moments too many favors. The second act, in particular, tries to do too much, and some of the "monologues" characters have in conversations with others need cuts – despite being largely interesting and often gorgeous. The direction is also uneven at this point. On the scene level, things are generally working nicely, but there are massive, jarring tonal shifts, and the staging has Sam Gold's signature sparseness and arcane symbolism, which I don't think does the text any favors.

Based on the contrast to other reports, I wouldn't be surprised if they're doing a good amount of edits during previews. I hope they can clarify and simplify in a way that emphasizes the things that are working best right now. On that note: [Vague spoilers] IMO, the simplest, most effective thing they could do is cut O'Connell's sub-plot in Act 2. It felt shoehorned, didn't add much to an already-textured character, and took away from the other characters' journeys, to me.

[lachri5]

Posted: 6/12/22 at 10:11am

Three days after I saw it on Thursday, a scene suddenly came back to me and brought tears to my eyes:

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

The brother, amidst describing the letter, suddenly remembered some lost pieces, and just had to drop everything, typing all the details he could remember in his phone immediately. That desperation, that careful focus, that few seconds of prolonged quietness, I understand it all too well. The image will stay in my mind for a long time.

[Pashacar]

Posted: 6/13/22 at 11:40am

lachri5 said: "Three days after I saw it on Thursday, a scene suddenly came back to me and brought tears to my eyes:

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

The brother, amidst describing the letter, suddenly remembered some lost pieces, and just had to drop everything, typing all the details he could remember in his phone immediately. That desperation, that careful focus, that few seconds of prolonged quietness, I understand it all too well. The image will stay in my mind for a long time.

"

Beautiful; I agree. And the way O'Connell's character handled that moment, as well. I also loved the very first scene, and how he interacted with his sister and his phone there.

[InTheBathroom1]

Posted: 6/13/22 at 8:10pm

I think this is definitely a do not miss because of the cast. Didi, fresh off her Tony win, is not to be missed. Jamie Brewer is so completely charming.  But I really walked away super-impressed with Will Dagger. Such a unique actor but so relatable.

I was mixed on the play. I think it’s lovely and I like what it’s saying, I just think it could get there a bit faster. It’s a play that you live in for a bit and you have to be willing to spend the time with it.  They are actively cutting it down too.

[Pashacar]

Posted: 6/15/22 at 2:10pm

InTheBathroom1 said: "They are actively cutting it down too."

Glad to hear this. I agree with you, and wish I had seen it after one more round of readings. Any more intel on what they're updating?

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/16/22 at 6:09pm

Selling a ticket for this Saturday night 6/18 at 8 p.m. Seat D 7, $25, and I have the E-ticket to forward.

SOLD

Updated On: 6/18/22 at 06:09 PM

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/18/22 at 9:31am

Updated On: 6/18/22 at 09:31 AM

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 6/18/22 at 11:19am

TaffyDavenport said: "Selling a ticket for this Saturday night 6/18 at 8 p.m. Seat D 7, $25, and I have the E-ticket to forward."

Sent you a PM!

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/22/22 at 10:22pm

Critic's Pick from Jesse Green:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/theater/corsicana-review.html

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 10:10am

All seats through Sunday are $30 with code CORACCESS

https://my.playwrightshorizons.org/corsicana

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 10:57am

I thought this was just lovely when I saw it the other night (thanks, Taffy!) and am a little surprised the reviews aren’t warmer to it. It was a little meandering, especially in the first act, and can occasionally feel like a new playwright’s rough draft with some of its dialogue, but I found the emotional core of this show incredibly affecting.

I don’t think I understood all of the directorial/design choices (Why that big wall in the back that was only opened for the first act? Why the turntable? Why all the lurking in the corner?), but found all of the performances pitch-perfect. The final scene where they’re singing Ginny’s song was so moving, my glasses fogged up from crying. Maybe I’m just a bigger softie these days, but it really tugged at my heart in a really lovely, poignant way. A little shaggy, but ultimately, very worth the trip.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 6/23/22 at 11:19am

You're welcome! I actually went to the matinee that day, and I also liked it very much. I thought it was a sweet, moving, slice-of-life story that really came together in the second act. I agree that the performances were spot-on, and I was especially fond of Will Dagger, whose delivery was just so effortless and lived-in, but, really, everyone was outstanding. It did drag a little for me in the first act, but, since I was really invested in act two, I thought it flew by, actually, and I especially liked the scene between Will and Deirdre at the table. As someone said earlier in this thread, don't sit house left, since very little happens over there, and I'd recommend sitting closer rather than further, if possible. 

As far as the direction/design, there were definitely some curious Sam Gold choices, but I chose to focus on the performances, which I really loved. I kept thinking about how satisfying it must be for a playwright to have their words acted so beautifully.

Updated On: 6/23/22 at 11:19 AM

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 6/26/22 at 11:17pm

I really don't understand why this got such mixed reviews

I could have watched these four on stage for another hour

Could it stand to lose another 10-15 minutes, absolutely, but meandering? life isn't always a clean journey and this show reflects that

[Pashacar]

Posted: 6/27/22 at 12:05pm

BoringBoredBoard40 said: "I really don't understand why this got such mixed reviews

I could have watched these four on stage for another hour

Could it stand to lose another 10-15 minutes, absolutely, but meandering? life isn't always a clean journey and this show reflects that"

I agree. Like in Heroes, they are just characters you can fully see and want to spend time with.