Brooklyn Laundry

Definitely want to see this. anyone have the 30 under 35 code? I continually keep missing them from my email.

Updated On: 2/8/24 at 12:50 PM

Copying over the blurb TaffyDavenport posted in the original thread in case anyone is unfamiliar with the play:

"Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley with Florencia Lozano, Cecily Strong, Andrea Syglowski, David Zayas

John Patrick Shanley, the Pulitzer Prize-and Tony-winning author of Doubt and the Oscar-winning writer of Moonstruck, returns to MTC with this world premiere of a new play. Sometimes big things start from little things; in this case, a bag of laundry.

Shanley’s latest is about three sisters and a guy who runs a laundry in Brooklyn, and the sometimes savage tricks life plays on them. Tragic and funny by turns, this story will remind you what is important in life … and the sorrow and joy of fully embracing adulthood."

I really enjoyed this, and Cecily Strong was a revelation for me. I loved her on SNL, but she was fantastic with this dramatic material. The play is short, but satisfying, and I can see it transferring to the Friedman, solely on the strength of Cecily’s name and strong performance.

Updated On: 2/9/24 at 11:52 PM

My favorite words in all of theatre:

"90 minutes; no intermission."

True. But i have seen 90 minute plays that feel like 3 hours and 3 hour plays that whip by.

I went over the weekend and while I enjoyed this, it didn't completely mesh for me. Cecily Strong was my main draw due to her work on SNL and she did not disappoint on the comedy or drama fronts. What a performer. Her and David Zayas played off each other well and their scenes clicked the best, particularly their second scene together. The characters felt lived-in and realistic; the plot developments less so. Not that the plot points totally strain credulity or anything like that, I just felt like too many things happened relative to the shorter runtime and the time frame in which the plot takes place. The events felt like they piled up instead of landing in a satisfying or good-dissatisfying way. I wasn't as satisfied with how the show balanced the lighter and darker moments. And though it's generally a brisk 80 minutes, I thought that the first scene with Trish dragged on for too long. Design-wise, I echo the praise on here for the set. It's a marvel. Detailed, efficient, and interesting to look at. Santo Loquasto nailed it.

I went through TodayTix rush and was in the back row off too the side. Others in my row did rush, too. Fantastic view!

kudos to cecily strong for picking such an intricate, small play to launch what i hope is a fruitful stage career. shes fantastic start to finish, in her showier scenes and even in the background letting others shine. shes worth seeing for sure.

and the play is engaging, another 80 minutes that mostly fly by. i enjoyed not knowing where Shanley was taking us, and I enjoyed the really impressive set work. But as others have mentioned, its a 5 act play, and the 4th act is so laden with plot bombs that the 5th can barely clean it all up---and it makes the criminal sin of trying. without revealing too much, the entirety of the play takes place over the course of less than a month but requires us to buy into the two leads buying into a relationship thats hard to take seriously.

and while this is the best work I've seen from Zayas, i cannot fathom why he was cast here: he is and reads 20 years older than Strong, and plays a role where that matters, given that Strong's character's age is a plot point.

for a debut piece, this is more forgivable but having just seen the taut perfection of Doubt this weekend, this is a bit of a let down.

still, i wasnt bored, and Strong is the cherry on top of a very solid cast doing some impressive work (especially Florencia Lozano). glad i caught it.

PipingHotPiccolo said: "kudos to cecily strong for picking such an intricate, small play to launch what i hope is a fruitful stage career. shes fantastic start to finish, in her showier scenes and even in the background letting others shine. shes worth seeing for sure.

and the play is engaging, another 80 minutes that mostly fly by. i enjoyed not knowing where Shanley was taking us, and I enjoyed the really impressive set work. But as others have mentioned, its a 5 act play, and the 4th act is so laden with plot bombs that the 5th can barely clean it all up---and it makes the criminal sin of trying. without revealing too much, the entirety of the play takes place over the course of less than a month but requires us to buy into the two leads buying into a relationship thats hard to take seriously.

and while this is the best work I've seen from Zayas, i cannot fathom why he was cast here: he is and reads 20 years older than Strong, and plays a role where that matters, given that Strong's character's age is a plot point.

for a debut piece, this is more forgivable but having just seen the taut perfection of Doubt this weekend, this is a bit of a let down.

still, i wasnt bored, and Strong is the cherry on top of a very solid cast doing some impressive work (especially Florencia Lozano). glad i caught it."

He reads 20 years older than Strong? I didn't see that at all.

Updated On: 2/19/24 at 12:53 AM

* i know Strong did that one-woman show, but this is a more traditional character-driven narrative play, a very different beast, and i hope she sticks with it, because shes great.



* Zayas is 21 years older than Strong in real life, and looks/acts it in the play. Maybe this was a deliberate choice to pair Fran up with someone so much older, but given the plot turns on child-rearing and procreation, it seems like an odd one to me. And it undermined their conflict even more than the rushed/sloppy nature with which it was depicted.

inception said: "Also, this isn't Cecil6 Strong's stage debut. She did a revival of The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universeat The Shed and then later in Los Angeles."

Cecily was a professional actor in Chicago theater as a child and teenager, and she went to college for theater at CalArts. She didn't get involved in improv until after she graduated with a BFA. She has a deep background in theater; she didn't just wake up one morning and decide to start doing plays.

First reviews are out. Gloria Oladipo of The Guardian writes:

"It’s hard to discern a higher meaning from John Patrick Shanley’s latest play, Brooklyn Laundry. Is it a play about the precariousness of human connection? A lesson on the sacrifices women make? ....

Ultimately, Strong, Lozano, and Andrea Syglowski (who plays Fran’s other sister Susie) are ornamental and underused in Shanley’s world ... An avalanche of things happen to them. The men in their lives – whether that be off-stage husbands or Owen – treat them as disposable. But Shanley does too, providing little opportunity for any of them to tap into personhood. It’s an insensitive treatment of the women in the play, made even worse by Shanley’s insistence that Fran’s happiness lies in Owen, a man she barely knows."

It sounds a lot like "The Big Funk", Shanley's play from 1990. That play concerns a hapless woman, abused by a blind date, then lectured to by a "nice guy" about how she should let him teach her how to love herself.