Napoli, Brooklyn
Written by Meghan Kennedy
Directed by Gordon Edelstein
Roundabout Theatre Company
June 17, 2017
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

This play was trying to do to much.  It was trying to tell the story of a true life plane crash in the early 1960’s that destroyed a good section of Brooklyn.  It also seeks to tell the story of a family with an abusive father who is trying to break out and break free.  It is also a coming out story about a young girl embracing herself as a lesbian.  It is also about the end of the 1950’s and the embrace of the radically unsettled world of the 1960’s.  THAT is a lot.  I had wished the play covered less ground and covered it more fully.

The problem I had with the family at the center of the story is that I (the audience) never got to experience the family in its “normal” before the big fight that damaged them.  I never got connected to a character before I witnessed their world turned upside down.  This made it very hard for me to care for anyone in the play.  I found the lesbian daughter’s fleeing the country in her teenage years a bit unbelievable.  I did find the story of the daughter who had always assumed that she was the stupid one – – finally being open to exploring more school to get further ahead in life.  I liked her quiet believable story.  I wish we had more time with her.

I will not give to much of the play but there is an enormous event at the end of Act 1 – very enormous.  My fear though is that the audience leaving the theatre will do nothing but talk about this technical marvel and forget the story – they were the night I saw it.