Good intentions. Bad decisions. Great fun. In Larissa FastHorse’s satirical comedy The Thanksgiving Play, a troupe of really well-meaning theater artists dream of creating something revolutionary: a culturally sensitive, totally inoffensive Thanksgiving school pageant that finally gives a voice to Native Americans. Finding said Native Americans... isn’t so simple. And that’s when things start to get absurd. Sending up a whole feast of social issues, this bitingly funny play roasts everything right, wrong, and woke in America.
Not all of the jokes land, and even with its brief 90-minute running time, the evening ultimately has the feel of an overextended sketch. That’s particularly true of this new production directed by Rachel Chavkin, which feels much broader than the original staging and features some theatrical flourishes near the end that feel wholly unnecessary. But the play still delivers plenty of uproarious moments and this starrier Broadway cast milks them for all their worth, with Carden and Finneran particularly hilarious with their physical comedy.
If history is written by the victors, it’s being rewritten — still by the victors — in The Thanksgiving Play. In Larissa FastHorse’s satire, a group of liberal-minded white people gathers to devise a play about Thanksgiving that will honor a Native American perspective on the atrocities Pilgrims committed without any insight into an actual Native American perspective. Their project, as you’d expect, goes wrong quickly. The problem is that The Thanksgiving Play intentionally hurtles its characters toward a dead end — like Wile E. Coyote toward a tunnel entrance that’s just drawn on the side of a rock — and it gets stuck once they crash. It takes them down but never justifies why we’re here with them in the first place.
Digital Rush
Price: $43
Where: TodayTix.com
When: 9am on the day of the show.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Subject to availability.
General Rush
Price: $45
Where: Hayes Theatre box office
When: Available 2 hours prior to curtain.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Determined at the discretion of the box office. Subject to daily availability.
| 2018 | Off-Broadway |
Playwrights Horizons World Premiere Off-Broadway |
| 2023 | Broadway |
Second Stage Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | D'Arcy Carden |
| 2023 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | The Thanksgiving Play |
| 2023 | Theatre World Awards | Theatre World Awards | D'Arcy Carden |
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