O'Hare's performance in the first major production was the secret weapon: his annotating commentary and rhapsodic paeans* were in stark contrast to the others', a different flavor of self-absorption than exhibited in the young athletes. When Tyler-Ferguson was cast, it seemed a logical choice if perhaps too spot-on. He's been tossing off a particular flavor of bon mots for years, and it's in his comfort zone. It may be a secret weapon of another, more predictable sort: his performance cues the audience, letting them know when to laugh, never a bad thing in a play this diffused, with so much going on. O'Hare doesn't have the situation comedy persona, and builds characters from he ground up. It enhanced this play. But it's a different era and this may be the presence the show now needs to satisfy a new audience. I'm not averse to actors using their own toolbox when it helps with audience access. .
*the Brantley original take on the O'Hare performance:
"...But ultimately, it's Mr. O'Hare who owns the evening. A lonely, emotionally constipated gay man whose life takes on meaning when he takes on Darren as a client, Mr. O'Hare's Mason becomes baseball's dream cheerleader. To see him bend and blossom before the mysteries of the game is a bit like watching Cary Grant, in his priggish mode, being thawed out by a madcap Katharine Hepburn in ''Bringing Up Baby.''
"And what an enchanting and enchanted take on baseball Mr. Greenberg has created for Mason, both passionately personal and lyrically analytical. It's a sensibility that is so smart, raw and sincere all at once that you may find tears in your eyes in the first act as Mason describes the raptures of ''the home-run trot.''
"There is also a moment in the second act that turns baseball into something like grand opera. The white light of night games floods the stage as the ensemble members act out an evocative baseball ballet, and Mr. O'Hare waxes into hallelujah-like paeans to the game. ''Maybe I've had a ridiculous life,'' he says, ''but this is one of its best nights.'... The scene is one of the most stirring on Broadway right now. It's an unconditional, all-American epiphany that, in these days of fretful ambivalence, is something to cherish."
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 3/14/22 at 11:06 AM
I hope it is good. I am looking forward to it.
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