Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Gina Gionfriddo’s hilariously, ruthlessly truth-saying dark comedy BECKY SHAW arrives on Broadway

• By drediman
• April 15, 2026
• No Comments

Last week saw the Main Stem premiere of Becky Shaw, Pulitzer Prize finalist Gina Gionfriddo‘s ruthlessly and hilariously truth-saying dark comedy about a blind date gone haywire, and the aftermath of events following it that fester like a wound that won’t heal. Although originally staged nearly two decades ago, Trip Cullman’s astute and piercingly-acted Broadway production for Second Stage at the Hayes Theater has aged remarkably well (Second Stage also staged the original 2008 production) — it remains a brilliantly pointed comedy of manners. If anything, Becky Shaw is shaping up to be one of the most bitingly entertaining and unassumingly thought-provoking plays of the Broadway season.

Truth be told, the characters in the play, individually, are a pretty unsavory bunch. But put them all together, and their vacillating virtues and flaws become relative, especially as they bounce their own perceived truths against each other. In fact, there are no villains here — nor are there clear protagonists. Often times I found my self being drawn to different sides of the same argument simply based on my visceral feelings towards characters at any given moment. The thing, ultimately, is that none of them have the desire (nor the energy?) to draw upon their store of empathy, if they even have any in reserve in the first place. As a result, the play’s barbed debates are often as drawn out — if they’re resolved at all — as they are gasp-inducing. Although some may find these kinds of stalemate situations frustrating, I find that they makes for deliciously uncomfortable dark comedy, especially as sensationally as it’s performed here.

Indeed, the acting is pretty sharp all around, but the standouts in terms of sheer comic panache would have to be Alden Ehrenreich — in a scintillating Broadway debut — and stage veteran Linda Emond as, respectively, a self-made and brashly self-focused asset wealth manager (who is set up on that fateful date with the titular character) and his employer, a tone-deaf matriarch of a once wealthy family. Both are brilliantly played as spectacularly self-centered and immovably assured in their world views. Less certain in their life decisions are the play’s young married couple — played with convincing psychological fragility by Lauren Patten and Patrick Ball — as well as their somewhat mysterious acquaintance Becky Shaw, who is portrayed with unnerving tenacity by Madeline Brewer.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

BECKY SHAW
Broadway, Play
Second Stage Theater at the Hayes Theater
2 hours, 20 minutes (with one intermission)
Through June 14