I agree wholeheartedly with Boris. I went back for my 4th time at the Wednesday matinee. Smallish house -- the mezz was spotty -- but the show was pristine, the music probably in peak form. Winningham one last time still broke me. It's a powerfully unfettered performance, so stripped bare, the two solos used to explore what this woman can't speak or probably even think clearly. Her voice was perfection this week, that wry take on the lyrics so uniquely hers. The full company is one of the best of this or any season, and I agree that Bierko is superb. His drunkenness was so eerily real it made the second act scene's heartbreaking reveals twice as harrowing. I loved Kudisch, but found something new in the sequence with Bierko. He seems a fully emptied man, less vital and more pitiable. He has that joker-ish performative smile that masks a well of deep pain, and he the expert Mason are entirely persuasive as this damaged couple.
Four times, and I'm still not sure exactly how this piece works its unique magic. Its mysteries -- the fusion of these songs in striking ways -- remain part of its appeal.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling