For those still pondering how we got to Trump in the White House, “Sweat,” Lynn Nottage’s play just opened at Studio 54 for this Pulitzer Prize winner’s Broadway debut, and a prescient view of our collective political plight. “Sweat” gives poignant voice to a disenfranchised microcosm of the American heartland, as if Michael Moore’s Flint, Michigan had taken center stage, featuring a fine ensemble under Kate Whoriskey’s expert direction. Kudos to John Lee Beatty’s set design, for a bar in inviting reds, a mecca where birthdays are celebrated and the closing steel mill mourned. It’s “Cheers” with less cheer, with characters of limited career options and a variety of ethnicities when in 2000, the doors of opportunity slam shut.
At Sunday’s opening, at Brasserie 8 ½, the stars mingled with an array of well-wishers: Spike Lee, Kate Burton, and Jessica Hecht, now starring in the fine production of The Price. Stephen McKinley Henderson, who was so great in Fences on Broadway, and in the recent movie, starred in the original Jitney ensemble, and was hobnobbing with Anthony Chisholm who was in the recent Broadway production. Much of Nottage’s play is about ancestors both black and white, hardworking people, a theme of August Wilson’s magnificent Pittsburgh Cycle. It is no coincidence that Nottage’s play is set in Reading, Pennsylvania. Consuelo Wilson, the playwright’s widow, manages his estate with a mission. While Denzel Washington has vowed to see all of Wilson’s plays produced, she is making sure that each one comes out in a special moment. As everyone supped on delicious beef, short rib risotto, and dim sum, Carlo Alban seemed overwhelmed. He hadn’t slept at all, he said; his mind was racing: “It’s all come to this night, and it went great!”
Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura
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