Michael (Corey Stoll) and Jackie (Cecily Strong) are on a first date in revival of Tom Noonan play (photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)
WHAT HAPPENED WAS . . .
Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre
18 Minetta Lane between Sixth Ave. and MacDougal St.
Through May 28, $55-$236.50
www.audible.com
“It’s weird . . . sometimes when I’m on the subway and people are whirring by me — lots of them — or on a bus looking out at the crowded sidewalks — it’s hard to believe that I have a life like all those people — that I am going through all this stuff, you know — that we’re all just not like extras,” Jackie says in Tom Noonan’s What Happened Was . . . “You mean like on a movie?” Michael responds. Jackie answers, “Yeah, it’s like we’re not here — that we don’t really have lives.”
It’s a feeling most everyone has had at one time or another, especially in New York, where both Jackie and Michael, two unusual, lonely people, work at the same law firm, she an executive assistant, he a paralegal. Of course, they don’t really have lives; they’re characters that first appeared in a 1992 play that debuted in the round at the Paradise Theater, which Noonan founded, on East Fourth St., followed by a highly influential 1994 indie film that gained great acclaim. Both were written and directed by Noonan, who also starred as Michael opposite Karen Sillas as Jackie onstage and on the big screen.
Those roles are now being performed by Corey Stoll and Cecily Strong, respectively, in a sparkling revival at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre, part of the company’s collaboration with Hugh Jackman and Sonia Friedman’s Together, which began last year with Ella Hickson’s Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes and August Strindberg’s Creditors in repertory. This spring, What Happened Was . . . is running in repertory with Sexual Misconduct through April 30, then with Hickson’s New Born, featuring Jackman, Marianna Gailus, and Sepideh Moafi. All are directed by Ian Rickson.
What Happened Was . . . takes place in real time on one night. Jackie has invited Michael over to her apartment for dinner, a first date, although Michael seems a bit clueless initially. They gossip about people at work, discuss music, and talk about their apartments — Jackie’s studio has a great view on the west side, while Michael lives in a one-bedroom on the east side. She comes from a big family on Long Island, while he was raised in Westchester.
He is tightly wound, moving stiffly, complaining about words that bother him (ritzy, seafood), explaining how birds are dinosaurs, and grimacing when Jackie announces they’ll be eating frozen scallops she’s heating up in the microwave, leading him to describe just how the appliance works. He keeps his briefcase nearby and doesn’t seem to be comfortable in his own skin.
Corey Stoll and Cecily Strong are terrific in Audible/Together production of What Happened Was . . . (photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)
Walking around barefoot, she is a freer spirit who shares what’s on her mind without a filter, although she wants everything to go right with Michael. She comments on how the suits he wears at the office make him look like a partner; meanwhile, in the corner opposite the kitchen are several racks of clothes, as if Jackie’s wardrobe is a theatrical costume room. (Brett J. Banakis and Christine Jones’s cozy set also features a pull-out sofa, a record player, wooden floors, small tables with lamps, a black chest, and a New York City Ballet Academy poster.)
As Jackie keeps pouring more wine, the two lost souls connect and disconnect as Michael goes into detail about the novel he is writing and Jackie is tempted to read her latest children’s story, which turns out to be utterly unforgettable. Having worked in children’s publishing for more than twenty-five years, I can say that I’ve never heard anything like it before.
Deftly directed by Rickson, What Happened Was . . . is a compelling adult tale boasting two outstanding performances; Stoll (Plenty, Othello), who chose not to watch the film version before doing the play, and Strong (Brooklyn Laundry, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe) once again prove that they are among our finest actors, each adding small touches of nuance and detail that give depth to their characters. You have to watch them every second to catch it all.
It’s a shame that Noonan, who also made such films as The Wife and The Shape of Something Squashed and had recurring roles on such series as The Beat, Damages, and 12 Monkeys, will be unable to see the production; he passed away on Valentine’s Day at the age of seventy-four.
In the early scene cited above, Michael continues, “I would have thought you’d feel real and that everyone else was an extra.” Jackie responds, “Yeah, I guess, but not really.” A moment later Michael makes a toast: “Here’s to the extras.”
Amen to that.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]