Skintight
Written by Joshua Harmon
Directed by Daniel Aukin
Roundabout: Laura Pels Theatre
June 12, 2018
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

What could ever draw Idina Menzel to the stages of NYC without giving her single song to sing?  Skintight was the show that did it!  I worried that the show was going to somehow ride off of her notoriety with Rent, Wicket or even Frozen, but blessedly I was wrong.  This show was rough, crude and certainly a puzzle.  Idina’s character has a father who is massively successful in the fashion industry and has recently taken in a 20 year old man as his partner – as she calls him his “boy toy”.  This is even more disturbing in that she has a son the same age.  And to make it even more, more disturbing she is recently divorced from a husband who decided himself to marry a woman in her twenties.  Everyone in the show wants someone in their twenties!  Everyone wants someone hot!

And THAT is the point – Skintight explores the concept of “hot” – – not beautiful, not sexy, not handsome, not attractive – but “hot.”  Hot implies a new take on making an object of someone.  It’s to so much about getting physical with them – it’s like having a beautiful lamp in the room that sends off energy 24/7 – and everyone that comes into your home is immediately drawn to “hot.” and all the danger it represents.  

“Hot” in this play is captured in the boy toy character of Trey.  His very “skin tight” presence in the room disturbs every connection in the room.  He  is rude and mean and demanding and narcissistic (obviously) but he is forgiven instantly.  Being in the presence of “hot” undoes everyone.  How can you hold your self-esteem or your self-worth – or your values – or your spirituality when sitting on the couch with “hot” sitting there eating chips in a jockstrap.  It cannot be done.

And then as the play draws to a close the question of marriage is poised.  Do you really want to marry “hot”?  Is that what “hot” is for?   What is the future here?  Thanksgiving dinners will never be the same.

Idina’s character finds the thought of her father sleeping with a 20 year old repulsive – but the father finds it to be a joy and a gift that hurts no one.  What is a family to do?