PROOF Previews- Page 2

[getatme]

Posted: 4/15/26 at 10:39pm

Caught this this afternoon and aside from at least one phone going off in every single scene, I overall quite enjoyed it.

The production is truly nothing special. Kail brings out no new colors, he has no take on the material, it is competently staged, the transitions are nice but don't amount to much. I think he was a poor match for the material (and probably most material, he's not much of a director, is he?) particularly given the cast. It would have been nice to see a director of color come at this material and perhaps find ways to make it say something about mental health/academics in communities of color.

But the performances are largely the reason this works.

I found Ayo to be quite good, she is still a bit inexperienced onstage and there are times she can pull back and the impact would probably be greater. But I found her compelling and she was able to balance the humor with the darkness inherent in the role. Her scenes with Kara Young are where the play really soars. I don't know if I sensed much sexual chemistry between her and Jin Ha, but their scenes together were well done as well.

Kara Young is a great actress and delivers a great performance. And yet, I think she was actually rather miscast. She has such an earthy, grounded energy to her that I don't know if I entirely bought her as the uptight, well-to-do sister. She acquits herself well because she knows how to find her way into the material, but at times I felt like I was watching 2 Catherines onstage vs. a Catherine and a Claire.

Jin Ha was a charming and adorable, very likable. His performance can lean a bit "theatre-y" at times, but in a way I found overall worked. 

Cheadle was good, but perhaps not great. I think there was a gravitas or intensity that was lacking. I longed to see glimpses of this mad genius, someone who perhaps lashed out or pushed his daughter in harsher ways. But Cheadle seemed intent on playing him as likable through and through. A valid read, but I wanted a few more layers to it.

Overall, it's a treat to see this play onstage, though I wish the production matched the work of the performers. Would love to see Edebiri continue doing theatre every once in a while.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/15/26 at 11:55pm

This was an overall very unfortunate production of a great play. If this is your first exposure to the material, I can't imagine you'd walk away understanding why it hit so hard originally or how on earth it won the Pulitzer. The main problem is some of the worst miscasting I've ever seen on a Broadway stage. I say this as someone who actually really does enjoy Ayo Edeberi on film. But there is not one true note to her Catherine on stage, not one believable line of dialogue. 

If you go back, there's a commonality between the women who played this in the original production. Mary Louise Parker, Anne Heche and Jennifer Jason Leigh all straddled that line between reality and possible insanity. They had this sexuality about them that they played with and was (if memory serves) a very integral part of their performances. None of that exists here. Ayo's Catherine is just a girl who I guess knows some math. And the problem isn't that she's bad - because she's not - she's actually quite good but she's not who this character is and here we have to fault the direction, also. Kail directs the play with no suspense, no mystery at all. I agree somewhat with an earlier statement that if you know the secrets of the story it loses something but each time I saw it originally, it was still kind of thrilling. Literally no hint of that exists anymore. 

I can't believe I'm going to say this because I LOVE HIM but Cheadle is totally wrong here. Like Edeberi, he's the wrong type of actor for the role and that amazes me to say, but the entire show I was just kind of in shock. There's just no "weight" to any of his scenes. Of the entire cast, I truly think Jin Ha is the only one who comes out of it giving the exact performance the production needs. I don't remember ever seeing a Hal being as sweet as he is but it works very well, here. 

For me, it's just an unfortunate revival. but I hope others enjoy it more than I did.

[getatme]

Posted: 4/16/26 at 12:01am

Kail really is a true misstep that as good as I found some of the performances to be, they just cannot overcome his mishandling of the material.