The Perplexed
Written by Richard Greenberg
Directed by Lynne Meadow
Manhattan Theatre Club
March 8, 2020
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

The Perplexed did that and did that for over 150 minutes and did that without any prize for having stayed the course.  I felt like I was in these expositional first few scenes of a comedy where you do not expect much to happen except the setup that is going to so pay off when you get to the last half of the show.  I was more than willing to be patient!  But this was exposition that went on and on and right to the last moment and felt like a long, long joke that was refusing to get the punch line!

What I enjoyed was a truly stunning New York apartment decorated to the tee.  I, in fact, took some illegal pictures for future decorating tips.  Inside the play, there were a few very quippy insights into life, class, and getting older – I had thought, “oh that would be a good one for Facebook” – but delivered way too fast for me to get.

I didn’t believe these characters.  I didn’t find their exploits funny.  I thought there was some really nice character work – – but to what end?  Perplexed – no more like abandoned.

The tragi-comedy, written by Richard Greenberg and directed by Lynne Meadow, focuses on two very wealthy New York, Upper East Side families, the Stahls and the Resniks, who gather for the first time in many years to celebrate the wedding of their children. In addition to the long feud between the families, each individual is fighting with their own demons. There’s the officiant (Eric William Morris), who is looking for his place in the world, and perhaps also his love; there is the bride’s uncle (Patrick Breen), a book-writer who has fallen from success to mediocrity and can’t seem to reconcile his unhappiness with his privilege; the bride’s father (Frank Wood), who is dealing with many traumas and a deep resentment for the host of the evening; the bride’s brother (Zane Pais), a medical student whose new side-job is not approved by the group; and that’s only the bride’s half.