Frank Langella and Adam Driver in Man And Boy photo: Sara Krulwich, NY Times Seen on Playgoer

A few days before I left for Ghana, I saw Man And Boy. In my excitement about traveling I forgot to write a review. When I got back, my head was very full of Ghana and I was a bit depressed about missing an opportunity to see Billy Elliot and totally forgot all about the wonderful play I saw a few weeks earlier.  If you care to see this play, you must do so quickly.  November 27th would be its last day on Broadway.

On September 14th at the American Airlines Theatre, I watched Frank Langella rule the stage in Man and Boy. The setting is a basement apartment in Greenwich Village, NY, on a fall evening in 1934.  Langella was soo good, I forgot he was on a stage.  I felt genuine pity for his character Gregor Antonescu, the mastermind behind a Ponzi scheme that was about to put him in jail or perhaps not.  Gregor chose money over everything and he was about to pay a prize for it.

Man And Boy is a devastating play that reveals humanity in a man who seems a monster to his family and the world. With his wit, he scammed everyone, including Basil, his son——played by Adam Driver.  For a minute there, it seemed that he would be getting away with his cruelty, like he had in the past.  I found the play incredibly emotional and the cast excellent.
–
Jane