I knew we were in trouble when a beat box orchestration began at the top and played thought out (how does a beat box get me any closer the appreciating the story. It doesn’t) – then they created a scene NOT in the play but one that just does nothing but introduce some characters that were never in the play.  THEN it all became a rap.  They were trying to force the play into a rap performance and I thought, Yikes, do they think they are doing some lame version of Hamilton?

They obviously wore body mics, but yet they used corded mics to make a point – but they sounded the same with or without the handhelds.  For most of the evening they took such delight in speaking as fast as possible or delivering the language all in a low, dull muffle.  They went through in lots of “fucks” and “shits” hoping to improve on the language of the original play – -but it did not.

The play was at its best when all the extraneous stuff was laid down and characters settled down to deliver the language as scripted to each other simply!  This play was doing all it could to be hip, cool, and relevant and with each effort they were moving further from doing that.  If the director/adapter wanted to doctor this play so much, perhaps they should have chosen a different play!