This week in TONY, I review The Little Flower of East Orange, Stephen Adly Guirgis' new work. I was very excited to see this one, what with a cast headed by Bug's Michael Shannon and the lovely Ellen Burstyn (above). Alas, Guirgis delivered another rambling, unfocused, falsely jacked-up urban shouting match. I really admire Guirgis; his Our Lady of 121st Street was electrifying, memorable theater and I thought his more stylized Biblical romp, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, was intriguingly flawed but bracing stuff. But I'm afraid this new work only emphasizes Guirgis' weaknesses: churning up dust in the form of embittered shouting characters when he could be drawing us into their stories; proliferating subplots that just seem like padding; and generally not charting his tale very clearly. He's a little like Adam Rapp in that way: tons of dramatic energy and solid showman-like instincts, but little patience for shaping the story for maximum impact. It's like the Rough N Ready School of American Drama. I wish that someone like Oskar Eustis could work with Guirgis on his play, let it go through a few more drafts, before releasing it on the world.
Elsewhere in TONY, there's our special package focusing on four promising lights of musical-theater of the future: David Javerbaum & Adam Schlesinger, Peter Mills, Brendan Connelly and Michael Friedman. Each story has a sound clip at the bottom. Enjoy.
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