ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "It's a nice, fun, slight play –– and it also has the energy of a playwright who feels they areterriblyclever for this conceit of setting Hamlet in a Black family's backyard BBQ.I guess one could make the same argument aboutVanya and SoniaorDoll's House 2or a number of other plays that made it to Broadway so...what do I know! The cast and production are rock solid, but I left kind of flabbergasted that it won the Pulitzer.
It, like WHICH WAY TO THE STAGE, doesn't know how to end, and in an incredibly lazy move it ends with a jukebox musical number/drag performance."
I agree with this to a certain extent, and it certainly seemed like the NYT review was most enamored by how it reused the conceit of Hamlet, but that conceit, while clever, left me feeling unsatisfied. It seemed to pick it up and drop it at will, only using it when it was convenient, so it came off a little unfocused.
I see the value in a lot of the themes this show touches on (family dynamics, masculinity, acceptance of self and others, etc.) but none of those themes seem as fully realized as I'd expect from a Pulitzer winner, and the play overall seems more like light entertainment with a few deeper themes rather than a meaningful play that also happens to be entertaining. It's another play where I agree wholeheartedly with Helen Shaw's review for Vulture--I like many parts of it, but I'm unsure if I like it as a whole.
I agree the ending felt more like a cop out than anything. I think it worked for Which Way to the Stage because it showed Judy's moment of self-actualization and breaking out of the bounds that had held her back, but I just don't see that same sort of moment here, unless it's meant to be a "who cares, let's just have fun" moment. Despite the entire cast taking their bows, I was so sure there would be one last soliloquy at the end to tie everything up, but there wasn't, so it felt very unfinished to me.
