Jen Silverman's "The Roommate" nestles its way onto Broadway at the Booth Theatre and brings with it two icons: Patti Lupone and Mia Farrow.
The combination of legends surely guarantees a good time at the very least, neither Farrow nor Lupone are lacking in ability or presence, but it's the perfectly succinct screenplay that makes this play a must-see event.
The story is simple: Mia Farrow's Sharon opens her home to her first-ever roommate, Patti Lupone's Robyn, and the two women's lives become entwined in ways neither of them expected.
The stage play doesn't revolve itself around larger-than-life ideas or devolve into melodramatics in its finale; its pacing is superb, especially considering its runtime is a mere hour and a half (without intermission), managing to completely envelop the audience in the characters and their situations.
At its core, "The Roommate" is anchored in things every human being eventually goes through: loneliness, the desire for camaraderie, and a series of vices that are hard and maybe impossible to shake. Because of this, the play is immediately accessible. Though only Farrow and Lupone ever appear on stage, it's hard to imagine that everyone in attendance doesn't immediately recognize one of the two women (or both) as being like someone they've known or have known. The universal qualities (good and bad) in the characters, along with the sharp, witty, and wonderful performances by Lupone and Farrow, make Sharon and Robyn instantly captivating.
Robyn is a New York tough (she's from the Bronx), guarded but incredibly perceptive woman who alternates hot and cold in her personality. Never takes anything too seriously but always deduces her situation down to its core so that she may be in as much control as possible. What can you say about Patti Lupone that hasn't been said before? She's dynamic, she's hilarious, and every comedic beat is hit with such precision that she's a master marksman of comedy. Even in the rare case that she may err during her performance, her incredible sense of timing and understanding of the material manages to elevate the script and the performance. Robyn is such a New Yorker that it's a joy for a New Yorker to watch her. Crass and sarcastic, she stalks the stage, making mental notes of what's what, expertly avoids answering any serious questions, and delivers passive aggression in such a way that it feels like a compliment, but the character is hiding something and Lupone's performance, while clear in its intention, does have incredible nuance. By the end of the show, looking back at her first scene, one can find tiny hints of what will be hidden in her actions and words.
Farrow delivers a knock-out performance as Sharon, completely embodying the character in every way. She's so adept at the characters that, at times during the play, I wasn't sure if things happening on stage were due to Sharon's quirkiness or unintended developments on stage. Sharon is a somewhat sheltered and neurotic woman who lives alone now that her son has moved out of the house and divorced her husband. Her apparent lack of experience clashes with Sharon but makes for a comedic pairing that lends such a loveliness to the characters that it is necessary to anchor its bittersweet ending.
It's hard not to understate Mia Farrow in this stage play. She is acting on all cylinders, every movement, inflection, and line delivery is taking Sharon from page to stage with crystal clear accuracy. In the final half hour of the show, Farrow's quirky but tender character becomes the emotional anchor for a series of quickly paced events that have to deliver laughs and even some tears, and the way Farrow bobs and weaves from emotion to emotion with such authenticity is incredibly daring, shocking and effective.
Not knowing what the play would ultimately be about aside from the title helped my experience, but it also isn't a story in which anything too complex happens. The crux of it all comes out of the magnificently penned script and two performances that take those words and transpose them into a heart-wrenchingly beautiful production.
My Verdict: 9/10
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