Pearl Penny Chen (Di Zhu) and Evelyn (Rebecca De Mornay) have some unfinished business in The Pushover (Dan Wright Photography)
THE PUSHOVER
Chain Theatre
312 West Thirty-Sixth St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Wednesday – Sunday through April 26, $45–$69
www.chaintheatre.org
Rebecca De Mornay makes an impressive New York stage debut in the world premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s curiously uneven but ultimately satisfying modern noir The Pushover.
De Mornay, who rose to stardom in the 1980s and ’90s in such films as Risky Business and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and more recently has had recurring roles on such series as John from Cincinnati and Jessica Jones, portrays Evelyn, an elegant kingpin involved in a lesbian love triangle with hyper-anxious chef Pearl Penny Chen (Di Zhu) and hyper-anxious restaurant manager, gambler, thief, and drug addict Soochi (Christina Toth). The action shifts from an exclusive spa in New Mexico, where Evelyn conducts her business, to an Asian restaurant in Queens, where Pearl is trying to restart her life and career.
Pearl sends Soochi, who has stolen from her, to Evelyn so that Soochi can make restitution. But Evelyn’s unexpected shifts between jokes and threats set a tone of menace early on.
Describing her exclusive spa, Evelyn explains, “Yeah, there’s an abundance of staff serving a pretty small clientele. And also, it’s the heat of the day, so a lot of folks hang in their rooms about now, or schedule treatments. Me? I like to use the time to pay parking tickets.” An unimpressed Soochi says, “You seem to have a lot of them.” Evelyn replies, “It’s worse than you think. I don’t even have a car.”
A few moments later, Evelyn, who admits to being a “gangster” and a “monster,” snarls, “I warn you! Do not talk shit about Pearl. She was my best shot, you understand? And when you cheated her, you cheated me. And you don’t want to cheat me. No, you do not.”
Evelyn has a plan to make things right, but it is impossible to trust the drug-addled Soochi, producing an explosive finale involving souls, money, and guns.
Soochi (Christina Toth) is at the center of a dangerous love triangle in John Patrick Shanley world premiere at the Chain (Dan Wright Photography)
The Pushover is clumsily directed by Kirk Gostkowski (Humpty Dumpty, Leave Me Behind) and is hampered by an unnecessary frame story in which Pearl meets with a therapist (Christopher Sutton, who plays multiple small roles). The changes in Jackson Berkley’s small, intimate set slow down the pace, and Debbi Hobson’s costumes, from spa robes to white gloves, call too much attention to themselves.
Tony, Pulitzer, and Oscar winner Shanley is one of America’s finest playwrights and screenwriters; his resume includes Doubt and Outside Mullingar on Broadway, Prodigal Son and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea off Broadway, and the films Moonstruck and Five Corners. This new play doesn’t stand up to his best.
Yet somehow it works. It has the feel of the Cher and Nancy Sinatra heartbreak song “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” and Rebekah Del Rio’s dream-pop “No Stars,” both of which can be heard at the Chain, adding to the noirish mood. And De Mornay (Born Yesterday, Closer) provides a steadying force as Evelyn, a strong-willed, powerful woman who knows what she wants and says what she means; she commands the stage with an engaging magnetism, bringing the narrative back to its focus each time it is about to go off the rails.
When Soochi becomes upset after Evelyn asks about the blouse she’s wearing, the mob boss says, “It was a trivial question. Maybe that’s the real problem. Maybe the real problem is you want everything to be important, and everything isn’t important.”
It’s a statement that also describes The Pushover.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]