It takes courage to admit that you’re desperately lonely. Michael, an obvious stand-in for the playwright, gets the lion’s share of the nasty laughs, but behind every joke is a hint of the bitter self-loathing that triggered it.
But they’re so well played under Mantello’s knowing direction, they could easily pass for the usual mismatched guests at any gay party in the pre-liberated era of the late 60s and early 70s.Ĭrowley is a master of the bitchy one-liner, so the play is littered with quotable bon mots, some of them surprisingly sweet to our older, more jaded ears. The rest of the guests, all played with intelligence and commitment, are standard types, among them one girly-boy (Robin de Jesus), one sweet African American guy (Michael Benjamin Washington), a pair of bickering lovers (Tuc Watkins and Andrew Rannells) and an adorable “birthday present” (Charlie Carver). Quinto is drolly regal, and as his subjects, we’re just grateful he doesn’t make us take a knee. Affecting a languorous gait that suits Harold’s superior cock-of-the-walk attitude, Quinto strolls over to one of the banquettes on the screaming-red living room set (also by Zinn, and equally cruel) and arranges himself as if on a throne. Resplendent in era-appropriate skinny pants and heeled boots (David Zinn did the viciously accurate costuming), Quinto knows how to take over a room.
