THE HANGOVER REPORT – Halley Feiffer’s latest effort finds the playwright continuing to explore distressed parent-child relationships

08FUNTHING-facebookJumboLast night at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, I caught Halley Feiffer’s latest, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City, courtesy of MCC Theater. The play takes place, as the lengthy title indicates, at New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where two very different people – one a young, unstable aspiring stand-up comic; the other an older divorcee with his own set of troubles – meet, spar, and more (their respective mothers, both of whom have cancer, share the same room at the hospital).

As with her previous play I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard at the Atlantic Theater Company last season, Ms. Feiffer’s latest continues her exploration of distressed parent-child relationships. Thankfully, A Funny Thing eschews the harsh sensationalism that characterized the earlier play, which this critic found somewhat off-putting. Instead, the playwright here opts for a more nuanced, less aggressive – albeit no less biting – depiction of the scars left behind by the parenting process, both from the parent’s and child’s perspectives.

For A Funny Thing, Ms. Feiffer has once again teamed up with director Trip Cullman, and the resulting production is smart and beautifully realized (the detailed hospital room set is by Lauren Helpern). The work by the production’s quartet of actors is exceptional. Beth Behrs is sensational as Karla, the aspiring comic, giving a performance that’s lovable and deliciously unpredictable. As her older sparring mate Don, Erik Lochtefeld does well to exude both wisdom and palpable anxiety. In the smaller roles of the cancer-ridden mothers, Lisa Emery and Jacqueline Sydney are pitch-perfect.

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A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY UNIT AT MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER OF NEW YORK CITY
Off-Broadway, Play
MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre
1 hour, 25 minutes (without an intermission)
Through July 3

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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