Abigail's Party

[Borstalboy]

Abigail's Party#0

Posted: 12/2/05 at 2:53pm

Wow, this one is gettin' some big-ass raves....anyone seen/going to see it?

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

[erelene@broadway]

re: Abigail's Party#1

Posted: 12/2/05 at 3:06pm

i m going to see it in a couple weeks

[melissa errico fan]

re: Abigail's Party#2

Posted: 12/2/05 at 3:10pm

It's a fascinating play, and the imcomparable Jennifer Jason Leigh gives the performance of her career.

[MargoChanning]

re: Abigail's Party#3

Posted: 12/2/05 at 3:46pm

I saw it two nights ago and loved it. Flawless ensemble acting invigorates naturalistic script (developed from improvs) that gives you a slice of life of 70s middle class British suburbia which while kitschy and mundane is endlessly fascinating and compulsively watchable.

Scott Elliot manages to capture just the right rhythms and pacing for this piece that involves a get together that plays out in real time. Abigail is the (unseen) 15 year old daughter of one of the guests, Susan, who's having a party with her friends at a nearby flat. While the teenagers' party can be heard in the background, Beverly the hostess, endeavors to keep her guests entertained. In the ensuing hours, initial awkwardness and hesitancy gives way (thanks largely to a bottle of Bacardi) to much outrageous conversation, arguments and resentments coming to the fore, flirtations, marital dischord, and a bit of bad suburban dancing.

Each character has his/her own agendas and motivations and much of the play consists of watching them attempt to pursue their own wants and desires while maintaining the (gradually eroding) sense of decorum at the party. While perhaps Leigh's script is not deep or complex in a traditional sense (some audiences are simply not going to respond to this material which on the surface might seem thin and meandering) it nonetheless is intriguiging and psychologically revealing of human behavior.

Jennifer Jason Leigh (as a strident and self-absorbed Beverly who hosts this little soiree) leads a first rate cast which includes Max Baker, Lisa Emery, Darren Goldstein and Elizabeth Jasicki. Derek McLane's set manages to capture the kitschy claustrophobic nature of the situation (the costumes and hair styles are dead on as well).


This is a terrific production top to bottom and was one of the highlights of the year for me. It won't be to everyone's taste, but those who respond to it will thoroughly enjoy it.

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney