I grabbed a standing room ticket to this production last night ($40) and for me it absolutely delivers as an entertaining night at the theater. Yes, it's still running about an hour forty-five, but its engrossing. I think it works without an intermission better (if you are familiar with the piece) for me because you need to be trapped in this birthday party gone wrong in real time for it to affect you best....you should feel like you will have to get on the phone next (for insiders, lol). They've done that here (The Transport Groups immersive inside an actual apartment revival a few years back is still did it best).
A lot of people have been going back and forth about the set, it doesn't photograph well, but used in the production it makes more sense. The function of it is really quite genius...the scene can be happening in the den down front while people are seen in the kitchen behind a glass wall in action without any sound. Plus the second story bedroom suite provides some nice opportunities to take the scene out of the den give it party going realness where guests are wandering everywhere to chat or in case of this play use the bed. The Matt Bomer shower scene is not gratuitous at all. It's actually in the text that he takes a shower and is tastefully done. You are supposed to feel his sexiness before other characters enter because he has chemistry with them you find out later on. It's not crass as some people have said.
The pacing is a bit slow, but it's in previews. If you want to see this show at its full effectiveness, wait till it opens. Joe Mantello and the cast are still finding it (he and his assistant were sitting in the back behind the standers). Although you may not be able to get a ticket by then. Some have said this dialogue should have come quick and easy because its clear that they are good friends....I disagree. Pulling that kind of naturalness off is very hard. They are doing a great job up there for it only being a few weeks in. The freezing time to highlight that Michael makes the choice to drink tonight is an idea that makes so much more sense on film because of pacing issues, but I get that Joe is trying to give the show a device to carry it through. It would help if the highlighted moment of Michael at the top of the show was a drinking tablou. I also question the music choices at the beginning and end of the production.
The cast is doing a great job. Standouts to me are Michael Benjamin Washington as a wonderfully internal Bernard and Robin de Jesus as just the right amount of flamboyant Emory (He is everything he needs to be rooted in character not stereotype). Andrew Rannells has comic timing but mugs his way through most of this performance as Larry. You don't quite understand why Hank loves him (hard to do regardless, Larry isn't the most enduring person in this play). Tuc Walkins has great moments, however. Bomer's Donald is believable, it's a smaller role that he makes the most of. I love the choice of him literally trying to disappear into the walls during all the drama. Charlie Carver's character as the cowboy is a bit too bland. Not sure he has the chops to pull this off, very hard to play dumb and make it believable and funny. Joe seems to not want to overplay these moments..Cowboy feels so real it almost comes across as lazy. Brian Hutchison as Alan is a great casting addition. He's just right. The major cast problem to me is the two lead roles. Jim Parsons feels miscast as Michael. He doesn't have the magnetic energy it seems like Michael needs to A) be the hub of a friend circle like this and B) He couldn't scare a lost kid in dark dressed as a monster...the vicious drunk just doesn't work on him. Unfortunately, that's the play. And then Zachary Quinto's take as a overly droll Harold just isn't helping the pace. You find yourself wanting to slap him on the back saying, spit it out boy! Also handsome Zachary Quinto as someone who hates how he looks is just too ridiculous to believe. I actually think had they switched roles, this would have worked so much better. Quinto as Michael, Parsons as Harold. I kept thinking how great it would have been to see the understudy FANTASTIC actor Matt McGrath in either of these roles (I hope one day we get back to a place where a fantastic actor in the right role is enough, I wont hold my breath).
The play was written from a true place by Mart Crowley and in my opinion, whenever that is apparent the relevancy of the play is there. Unfortunately, the question and judgement of what the ideal amount of masculinity a gay man should have is still heavily present in the modern gay community. And shame will always be a universal problem, but I feel like Joe should really bring out the shame in these particular men a bit more. In 2018, its hard for gay men to relate with the shame that men in the 1960's, who could still be admitted to insane asylums for being out, carried with them. When Parson's Harold says, if we could only stop hating ourselves in the arms of Bomer's Donald, it felt untrue. This play is around for people to see how that kind of shame is too heavy for people carry, I hope they figure out how to show that more, because those in the gay community who can now marry need to be reminded whose shoulders they stand on.
I was entertained and certainly felt the wrath of Jim Parsons near the end of the play. I do plan on reading the script and watching the movie some time this summer and give this play more thought but for the most part I thought it was well-acted and well done. Kudos to the cast! 
