If the road “What lets hold, the holly or one another?” hadn’t already been taken by The Lion In Winter, it might make a becoming quip stuffed someplace in Leslye Headland’s deliriously reducing Cult of Love, opening tonight on Broadway.
Granted, this dysfunctional household vacation is already stuffed to the garlanded mantlepiece with emotional jabs and explosive resentments, however another well-honed jibe couldn’t harm. It’s that type of play.
A Second Stage Theater manufacturing steered like a fast-moving sleigh by director Journey Cullman, Cult Of Love boasts a superb solid (headed by Zachary Quinto, Mare Winningham, David Rasche and, in a formidable Broadway debut, Star Wars: The Acolyte‘s Rebecca Henderson) that pulls off a well-known situation with surprising freshness.
The place is a fantastic Connecticut farmhouse embellished to a Christmas fare-thee-well (John Lee Beatty designed the beautiful set, with Heather Gilbert contributing the festive lighting), the time is Christmas Eve and the Dahl household is of the variability that comes collectively grudgingly and toting extra animosity than presents.
A part of a sequence of Headland performs dedicated to the seven lethal sins, Cult Of Love will get the respect of pridefulness, and that exact transgression makes itself identified in each deliciously holier-than-thou angle every member of this raised-Christian household brings to the get together.
For starters, there’s mother Ginny (Winningham) and pop Invoice (Rasche), who’ve raised their 4 youngsters in a strict, socially remoted suburban Christian house. Invoice is the extra easygoing of the 2, to the purpose of being indifferent (and, it’s suspected, experiencing early indicators of dementia). Ginny is controlling, demanding of floor perfection and not-so-subtly judgmental (assume Mary Tyler Moore in Extraordinary Folks through August: Osage County.)
And Ginny has heaps to hold her judgements on. Eldest son Mark (Quinto) has been a black sheep ever since ditching plans of the priesthood for legislation college (and atheism). He’s married to Rachel (Molly Bernard), previously of the Jewish religion, now transformed to Christianity however no extra a real believer than her husband. Her go-along-to-get-along demeanor has settled right into a boiling resentment on the household’s barely disguised anti-semitism.
The solid of ‘Cult Of Love’
Joan Marcus
Subsequent up is Evie (Henderson) and her (secretly) pregnant spouse Pippa (Roberta Colindrez). Mother Ginny chooses to imagine that Evie isn’t actually homosexual, regardless of all proof on the contrary, however the overt homophobia is left to youngest Dahl daughter Diana (Shailene Woodley) and her preacher husband James (Christopher Lowell), neither of whom can resist discuss of hellfire and damnation couched in loving concern.
Lastly, there’s the late-to-the-party Johnny (Christopher Sears), a free-spirited recovering heroin addict who brings alongside his fellow 12-stepper Loren (Barbie Ferreira), the outsider and truth-teller whose appalled on the hateful spiritual vitriol spewed by Diana.
Certainly, the tongues-speaking, self-proclaimed prophet Diana is the first pot-stirrer of the household, even because it turns into all too clear that her religiosity masks some severe (although, within the writing, not altogether convincing) psychosis.
Headland, the Russian Doll co-creator and Star Wars: The Acolyte creator making her Broadway debut with Cult Of Love, is adept at conserving the dialogue crisp, humorous and fast-moving, even when the pile-up of personalities, crises, conflicts and really exhausting emotions grows schematic and a bit predictable. Whereas Cult Of Love lacks the superior energy of, say, final season’s household reunion drama Applicable, it actually has the power of its convictions (and occasional compassions), and maintains our curiosity from begin to end.
Solely within the well-performed musical interludes – it is a household that by no means met an instrument it couldn’t strum or drum – does Cult Of Love really feel in want of some modifying. The household’s Christmas carol harmonizing makes for a stunning metaphor for the familial perfection so desired by mother and pop (and the inclusion of songs by Fleet Foxes and Sufjan Stevens is a pleasant contact) however the grudging participation by among the clan would possibly mirror some impatience amongst at the least a part of the viewers. As charming as Cult Of Love may be, it may well additionally really feel as insistent as a picture-perfect mom.
Title: Cult Of Love
Venue: Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater
Written By: Leslye Headland
Directed By: Journey Cullman
Forged: Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Barbie Ferreira, Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell, Zachary Quinto, David Rasche, Christopher Sears, Mare Winningham, Shailene Woodley
Working time: 1 hr 45 min (no intermission)
