{"id":665,"date":"2023-01-05T16:41:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T20:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/?p=665"},"modified":"2023-01-05T16:41:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T20:41:12","slug":"on-the-aisle-with-larry-5-january-2023-between-riverside-and-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/?p=665","title":{"rendered":"“On the Aisle with Larry” 5 January 2023 — “Between Riverside and Crazy”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lawrence Harbison<\/strong>, our very own critic, brings you up to date with what\u2019s hot and what\u2019s not in New York. In this column, Larry reports on BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After almost two years away from NYC, avoiding the pandemic, I\u2019m back seeing shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between Riverside and Crazy<\/em> is my second play. The first I did not care for, and parts of it I found Beyond Disgusting, so I\u2019m not writing about it. That gets me to Stephen Adly Guirgis\u2019 play. I saw this the first time around Off Broadway, and now it has moved to Broadway\u2019s Helen Hayes Theatre, its cast mostly intact sans one actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This wonderful play is about an elderly retired cop named Walter, disabled years ago when he was shot six times in an after hours bar. He has a quixotic suit pending against the city and refuses to settle. A cop who\u2019s married to his former partner tries everything he can think about to get him to change his mind. Will he or won\u2019t he forms the crux of the plot. Meanwhile, his son Junior is living with him along with his girlfriend, who may or may not be pregnant, and fencing stolen goods. Junior\u2019s unstable friend also lives with him. Everyone calls the old guy \u201cDad\u201d. It\u2019s a strange extended family into which barges a Church Lady, determined to bring Walter to Jesus, and she resorts to an unusual way to do it, which is out and out hilarious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen McKinley Henderson is wonderful as Walter, but all the cast is first rate. A rapper who calls himself Common is particularly good as Junior, and Maria Christine Oliveras steals the show as the Church Lady. The realistic, revolving set by Walt Spangler gets applause more than once, and Austin Pendelton has directed the play with his usual steady hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between Riverside and Crazy<\/em> is the kind of play we rarely see these days \u2013 classic American realism with terrific characters, beautifully directed. My kind of play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between Riverside and Crazy. Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 W. 44th<\/sup> St. Tickets: www.2st.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawrence Harbison, our very own critic, brings you up to date with what\u2019s hot and what\u2019s not in New York. In this column, Larry reports on BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY. After almost two years away from NYC, avoiding the pandemic, I\u2019m back seeing shows. Between Riverside and Crazy is my second play. The first I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions\/666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfixer.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}