From its initial run at Barrington Stage in 2022, director Ashley Brooke Monroe and original cast members Madison Ferris and Danny J. Gomez return alongside Kyra Sedgwick, Lily Mae Harrington, Florencia Lozano, Brian Morabito for this hilarious and candid portrayal of class and disability by Laura Winters.
It’s your classic romantic comedy. Boy meets girl. Boy uses a wheelchair, girl uses a scooter, and they both use text-to-speech technology to connect to the world around them. They come from different worlds, but love pulls them together when their families push them apart. All of Me is a boldly humorous and candid love story exploring class and disability in America today.
The biggest issue with the play, however, is how hard Winters tries to make the lovers’ class distinction a major issue, but their different economic statuses is not really the thing that comes between them. Nor are their mothers. Alfonso, a successful data scientist, ultimately has trouble seeing a future with the unambitious Lucy, who can’t even commit to touring a community college for one afternoon. One wishes this subject was explored more – and resolved far less easily -- than it is. Still, original works that can make audiences laugh – and even cry – are a rarer commodity in theater than they should be these days. So, I’ll take “All of Me.” You should too!
There is a wittiness to the play’s conceit, rendering the awkward sparks of flirtation in synthetic voices. (The line readings and timing are a collaboration between the actors and the creative team, including the sound designer Matt Otto.) And Winters pays careful attention to the dynamics of living with disabilities that we rarely see depicted onstage, like balancing personal agency with the realities of needing assistance. But a sense of dutifulness toward representation — exploring differences in class as well as the origins and onset of disabilities, for example — gives “All of Me” a schematic quality. A subplot dealing with the opioid epidemic very nearly tips it into P.S.A. territory.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
New Group Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
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