Broadway “Birthday Candles” review: Debra Messing prepares a life in a new drama

Birthday candlesNoah Heidley’s Broadway drama, starring Debra Messing as a 17- to 107-year-old woman for 90 minutes of the show, has nearly all the ingredients for that heartwarming, funny, affirmative experience it should be. If not always everything goes as it should, even an imperfect cake is better without a cake.

The Roundabout Theater Company production opens tonight at the American Airlines Theater Birthday candles Always become a nice messenger who has already conquered us in all his years. will and graceLike Ernestine, whom we first meet on her 17th birthday, when she joins her mother in the annual pastry tradition.

“Eggs, butter, sugar, salt”, says Mama Alice, uttering a little word that will become part of Ernestine’s birthday tradition. The humblest ingredients. But when you go back and look far enough, you see the atoms left over from creation. “

But even the existential qualities of baking pies will not satisfy young Ernestine, who at 17 wants much more than is possible within the confines of the Grand Rapids kitchen. “I am a rebel against the world,” she said dramatically to her mother and to the world. “I am waging war every day. I will surprise God! “

In a few minutes the show will move quite smoothly to Ernestine’s 18th birthday, then in the other years to Newlyweds, Young Maternity, Middle Ages and Old Age, Love, Loss, Harmony and Tragedy, each scene featuring different Ernestine characters. Life – Six actors play a total of 12 roles – come together for the annual pastry tradition to reflect on a woman’s ordinary and unusual existence at the same time next year. And, yes, there will be a completely baked cake coming out of the curtain.

During the 90-minute life of the show, we meet (and, in most cases, connect with) Ernestine’s loving mother, troubled daughter and cheerful grandson (all playing the wonderful Susanna Flood, a caustic and deeply sad daughter. particularly effective); Her lover and husband Matt (John Earl Jacks); Her girlfriend, a classmate, a neighbor and a seemingly missed opportunity Kenneth (Enrico Colanton); sensitive but provocative son Billy (Christopher Livingstone); restless sister-in-law Joanne and outspoken niece Alex (both played by the hilarious Crystal Finn); And others that come and go.

We see that all the characters take their age on stage, some suffer from illnesses or personal conflicts, none – and no spoilers are necessary, given the premise of the opera – Ernestine will hold up. The recurring joke, or duel, or both, between Ernestine and loving Kenneth is about the absurdity of after-death acquaintances in the family asking, “If I can do something.”

“Yes, it is,” Kenneth or Ernestine would say to the other. “Return them. Bring them All Behind. “

This joke reflects what works best Birthday candles – Recognizing a never-ending loss, be it death or divorce, heavy feelings or a simple act of going too far. The mess, in particular, reflects the set of emotions caused by the loss, sudden or otherwise: pain, confusion, anger and a slow, slow resignation. And always for the astonishing absence and the speed with which they arrive, and all the rest of life. Perhaps, Birthday candles It offers a confused and rather awe-inspiring perspective on life’s rising heights and relentless descents.

What the work fails to accomplish is a balance of more stylistic trends, a shift between naturalism and a more fabulous approach, the latter characterized by a rather moody character (goldfish, or more precisely, a series of 100 Red fishes). of antiquity). The word “divinity in you”.

More damaging than a fish full of symbolism, however, is the loss of a fabulous-realistic approach to the acting style. Messing, in the fascinating Hernestinian repetition of young and middle-aged people, adopts (or director Vivienne Benes is encouraged to adopt) a tense and suspended way of speaking that Hollywood in particular has used so often as a sign of old age (see Juliana Moore , watches). As her character ages, Messing seems to go from being Ernestine to something of a grandmother.

Production designer Christine Jones presents a fascinating mix of utilitarian and fantasy, with an attractive (and functional) suburban kitchen and living room set under the rubble of life: dolls, seahorses, frying pans and more. . Others, hanging from the beams of the theater like so many stars. The images are wonderful. (Talented costume designer Tony-Leslie James sometimes takes a less effective approach, relying here and there on all-too-obvious hints and tips: baseball bats for the young, rolled-up (!) Socks for the older Ernestine.)

However, despite all the misconduct, Messing and the other actors beautifully convey a variety of emotions spanning a period of life, from happy to sad times (the viewer crying and moaning in the show in question sounded like laughter). Even the confidence-building last birthday scene can’t spoil a simple surprise. Birthday candles.