August: Osage County

We were in NYC over the weekend. My cousin was Bat Mitzvahed (sp). I had an aliyah, and I didn't screw it up. It was a real whiz-bang trip, arriving Friday evening and then leaving Sunday lunchish. Saturday was the service and the luncheon and then that evening while all the kids partied down at what I am sure looked like something right out of My Super Sweet 16 the adults had the time to themselves.

Although retired from theatre my mom thought it might still be fun to go to a show. She selected the soon to be Tony winning August: Osage County - she had a friend in the cast. More specific would be to say the soon to be Tony winning, three and one half hour August: Osage County. No place on Broadway will you get more play for your money. That's something I guess.


I'd actually gone to school with the set designer: Todd Rosenthal. It was neat to walk into a Broadway house and see his name in the program. He'd also done a set at Apple Tree years ago, so there's another connection for my mom. The set Todd did for the show was a three story affair, sort of the open frame of a house going up to the attic. There was a living room/dining room downstage as well as a front door and a kitchen in the back for the first floor. The second floor wasn't much more than a stair landing and an exit, and then there was a bedroom on the third floor. Truth be told I wasn't sure they needed all that height, but then that's why I build them and don't design them. Hudson built this set and did their usual excellent job. I remain a little perplexed about how they achieved the lateral bracing they would have needed for a set that is so tall since the frame was so open. Maybe I'll make a call or two to find out.


The play sort of defies description. It's about a dysfunctional family in the wake of the death of their father. Everyone in the play is broken in one way or another and over the course of the story those issues all come to light. The audience experience is getting to see the unfolding, but really there is no predicting. Eventually the things that happen (or are revealed to have happened) are so unlikely you could never have guessed, but I guess that's part of what makes it interesting.

For me I think the coolest part was that often as someone watching you couldn't tell if something was supposed to be funny or sad or shocking or what. There was one moment where I heard something I thought was hysterical, but I was the only one that did in the entire theatre. So you're sitting there and something happens and you have a choice to laugh or cringe and really often it's a toss up.

After the show one of the people in the company came out the door and was talking to a friend who met him and saying "...see what I mean? you don't know if you are supposed to like them or pity them or hate them or empathize or what?"

That's how I felt, and I guess it was what they were going for. In the end it's a little wanting. Still, it's a great script and the performances are very good, and all the craft is excellent, and with two intermissions you hardly notice it's three and a half hours long. If you get a chance, you should check it out.