Close friends gather for a birthday party that goes awry in STEVE (photo by Monique Carboni)
The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center
The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through January 3, $25-$95
www.thenewgroup.org
www.signaturetheatre.org
Be sure to arrive early for the world premiere of the New Group’s Steve, which has been extended at the Pershing Square Signature Center through January 3. As you enter the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, the cast is already onstage, singing American standards and show tunes. (The music coordinator is Emmy-nominated writer, actor, musician, and radio host Seth Rudetsky.) It sets up a warm camaraderie that is about to be torn apart once the play itself begins. It’s Steven’s (Matt McGrath) birthday, and he and his friends are gathering at a Manhattan restaurant to celebrate. He’s there first with Carrie (Ashlie Atkinson), a large, gregarious lesbian with terminal cancer, something Steven refuses to acknowledge. “Dying sucks,” Carrie says. “You’re not dying,” Steven instantly responds. They are soon joined by Steven’s longtime partner, Stephen (Malcolm Gets), with whom he is raising a son, and another couple, their friends Matt (Mario Cantone) and Brian (Jerry Dixon). As the waiter, a flirty Argentine dancer named Esteban (Francisco Pryor Garat), quotes Twyla Tharp, the snark flies as the group trashes Broadway shows, movies, and celebrities, saving particularly choice bits for Mame, the Spanish version of West Side Story, Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald, and Evita. “Esteban, you’ll have to forgive Stephen,” Steven says, “as he comes from a generation that fetishizes the lesser musicals of the early eighties.” The party takes a tense, nasty turn when birthday boy Steven reveals to everyone that Stephen and Brian have been secretly sexting each other. The narrative gets more interesting when debut full-length playwright Mark Gerrard and director Cynthia Nixon then present a different version of the same scene; initially, Steven had publicly admonished the electronic affair between Stephen and Brian, whereas in the alternate take, Steven proceeds with similar anger and frustration but without explicitly explaining why he is so upset. Yet another Steve becomes part of the fray when it is later learned that Brian and Matt are involved in a special relationship with trainer Steve, whom every man froths over at the gym. Despite the various issues, the friends and lovers try to make it through some tough times, all the while delivering a fast-paced patter of snide, exquisitely cynical comments. It’s hard not to enjoy the barbed banter even as you’re aware that the play depicts a nearly endless array of stereotypical images of modern gay life in New York City.
Matt (Mario Cantone) and Steven (Matt McGrath) discuss life, love, and loss in New Group world premiere (photo by Monique Carboni)
At one point, Carrie remembers how Stephen and Steven met, when the former would come to watch the latter perform as a singing waiter. “It was genius,” she says. “A love letter written in slow motion with the Broadway Song Book.” That thought can also be applied to Steve itself, although it moves at a swift, rhythmic clip and might be more deliciously decadent than outright genius. The excellent cast clearly is having a blast together, and that mood is infectious, although most of the characters end up being not very likable, doing not very likable things. But Carrie’s zest for life and her acceptance of her fate are energizing, wonderfully portrayed by a defiantly positive and upbeat Atkinson (Fat Pig), while Matt’s adorably childlike joie de vivre infuses the proceedings with sheer glee, as the cute and cuddly Cantone (Sex and the City, Laugh Whore) revels in being the comic relief. Most important, Gerrard (Andy Cohen Has a Big D***) and Nixon (Rasheeda Speaking, MotherStruck) succeed in making the audience feel like a part of this extended twenty-first-century family, from the bouncy singing at the beginning through all the bittersweet trials and tribulations to the heartfelt finale on Fire Island.