Get ready for the unexpected when Norm and his wife Corky invite another couple to their Ojai backyard to watch a meteor shower in the night sky. As the stars come out and the conversation gets rolling, cocktails flow, tempers flare, and sparks fly-literally. Steve Martin's surprising new comedy takes an offbeat and absurdist look at the comic anxiety lurking just beneath the surface of modern marriage.
Which is not to say it does not achieve something worthwhile: an updating of absurdism for Gen Xers, starring their own kind but writ and choreographed by their elders. (Poor Gen Xers; those boomers just won't let go.) That marriage of the new stand-up/improv elite with the disgorged pain of a great comic writer suffering through a long stay on a planet America clearly spinning off its axis is what I have not quite seen before. Most neo-absurdist playwrights, your Will Enos and Annie Bakers, are gently compassionate satiric observers. They don't have Zaks out there in the dark going louder, faster, quicker, funnier, smarter, clearer, for goodness sake. Martin did.
Amy Schumer's Broadway debut is no trainwreck. Her deft and daffy performance is a bright spot in wild and crazy guy Steve Martin's 'Meteor Shower' at the Booth Theatre. The play, seen in previous runs in California and Connecticut, is heavy with absurdity and modestly laced with laughs. But it has the lightweight feel of an extended, if not overextended, skit.
2016 | San Diego, CA (Regional) |
The Old Globe World Premiere Production San Diego, CA (Regional) |
2017 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Laura Benanti |
2018 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Amy Schumer |
2018 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | Steve Martin |
2018 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Amy Schumer |
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