‘Hand to God’ theater review

“Hand to God” — a dark, irreverent and smart comedy by the young, previously unknown playwright Robert Askins — is one hell of a great success story, having graduated step by step from off Off-Broadway to Off-Broadway to finally Broadway itself. This is the kind of raw and raunchy play you don’t typically see on Broadway, but once there ends up making Broadway a more exciting place. It brings to mind “Avenue Q,” which also involved irreverent, foul-mouthed puppets. Yet despite how silly it gets, “Hand to God” is also a seriously disturbing portrait of an emotionally scarred mother and son who have spent so long suppressing their rage that it comes out in unpredictable and inappropriate ways. Jason (Steven Boyer), a sad and shy high school teen in Texas whose father recently died, has been enlisted by his enterprising mother (Geneva Carr) to take part in her fledgling church basement puppet theater — the “Christian Puppet Ministry” — along with a few other classmates including cool kid Timothy (Michael Oberholtzer) and girl next door Jessica (Sarah Stiles).