Breaking the Story
Closing: June 23, 2024Breaking the Story - 2024 Off-Broadway History , Info & More
Tony Kiser Theatre
New York
As a foreign war correspondent, Marina (Maggie Siff) has put her life on the line to illuminate the darkest corners of humanity. Having just returned from a particularly bloody conflict, she flirts with staying home for good—alongside her cameraman turned lover (Louis Ozawa). With her closest friends and family gathered on the eve of her lifetime achievement award ceremony, she decides to cap this glorious moment with an elopement. But as Marina tries to take hold of her life, she’s forced to reckon with the hold war has on her.
BREAKING THE STORY is a darkly funny and fiery drama about the cost of war and the audacity of those frontliners armed with only a press badge.
Breaking the Story - 2024 - Off-Broadway Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Breaking the Story
BREAKING THE STORY: WAR IS HELL, AND SO IS REMEMBERING IT
6 / 10
One of the problems with the play, which never seems to find a consistent tone or narrative coherence. Periodically throughout the lighthearted interactions among the characters, Marina experiences memories of past traumas, conveyed by the sound of numerous loud explosions that might induce PTSD in audience members as well. There are also flashbacks to her wartime experiences, including a sad encounter with a refugee (also played by Halston.) More confusingly, some scenes are repeated, as if Marina is suffering from déjà vu, and others feature characters talking about her as if she wasn’t there, to which she reacts with understandable annoyance. Later on, yet another character briefly appears: Fed (a dashing Matthew Saldivar), Marina’s ex-husband and fellow war correspondent who now wants her back.
Glibness Mars ‘Breaking the Story,’ Alexis Scheer’s Latest, but at Least There Are a Few Good Punchlines
6 / 10
Alexis Scheer’s new play, “Breaking the Story,” begins with a bang, literally, and features several more before its roughly 80 minutes have expired. The central character, Marina, is a veteran foreign correspondent who clearly suffers from PTSD. We meet her in an unnamed war zone as she tries to report between missile strikes; yet the explosions continue intermittently, as flashbacks, even after she has moved to more peaceful surroundings — a house with a garden at Wellesley, Massachusetts — to ponder early retirement. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of figurative whimpering between the blasts. Ms. Scheer earned acclaim several years ago with “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord,” another play that carries into an idyllic suburban setting ghosts of terror from abroad; in that work, a group of seemingly privileged teenage girls gathers in a treehouse to summon the ghost of a notorious Colombian cartel leader, Pablo Escobar.
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Photos: Inside Opening Night of Second Stage's BREAKING THE STORY
by Bruce Glikas - June 5, 2024
by Bruce Glikas - June 5, 2024
Second Stage Theater just celebrated opening night for the world premiere of Alexis Scheer's BREAKING THE STORY, directed by Jo Bonney. Check out photos from inside the big night!
Review Roundup: Alexis Scheer's BREAKING THE STORY
by Nicole Rosky - June 5, 2024
by Nicole Rosky - June 5, 2024
Second Stage Theater just celebrated opening night for the world premiere of Alexis Scheer's BREAKING THE STORY, directed by Jo Bonney. Check out what the critics are saying about the new play.
Breaking the Story History
Other Productions of Breaking the Story
| 2024 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Off-Braodway Premiere Off-Broadway |
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