Jerome Off-Broadway Reviews

There’s a nostalgia evident in the show and in the cast’s performances, and as their relationship and health drama unfolds, it borders on honorific. Yet the tactility of these characters’ lives struggles to materialize despite solid performance...

There’s a nostalgia evident in the show and in the cast’s performances, and as their relationship and health drama unfolds, it borders on honorific. Yet the tactility of these characters’ lives struggles to materialize despite solid performances and a fine text.

Impressive stagecraft can’t make up for an unconvincing story or characters who seem unlikely to be friends, let alone passionate lovers. It doesn’t help that Barnett appears to be decades younger than the fiftysomething we eventually learn that ...

Impressive stagecraft can’t make up for an unconvincing story or characters who seem unlikely to be friends, let alone passionate lovers. It doesn’t help that Barnett appears to be decades younger than the fiftysomething we eventually learn that he is — but we never really buy that he’s chosen this couple as anything but a way station as he hides out from the fraught life he left behind in the Bay Area.

Director-scenic designer Dustin Wills’ production delivers a jaw-dropping effect at the end of Act I as Bruin’s past implodes. Act II pushes the magical realism further, expanding on a rich tradition of using the supernatural to express the unspe...

Director-scenic designer Dustin Wills’ production delivers a jaw-dropping effect at the end of Act I as Bruin’s past implodes. Act II pushes the magical realism further, expanding on a rich tradition of using the supernatural to express the unspeakable trauma of the AIDS crisis. In this way, Spinella’s presence is a profound, full-circle moment for American queer theater. His latest role bridges the historical trauma of the epidemic (he originated the roles in Broadway’s Angels in America and the film adaptation of Love! Valour! Compassion!) with contemporary storytelling.