Beyond Therapy
Opening Night: March 11, 2014
Closing: April 19, 2014
Theater: Beckett Theatre
Life can be crazy. Therapy can help. But when one is beyond therapy laughter is the best cure of them all. And this comedy about the search for a meaningful relationship in an insane world will make you laugh like mad.
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March 25, 2014
It’s no secret — and never was — but it is amusing that shrinks can be as bonkers as their patients. In 1981, Christopher Durang’s comedy Beyond Therapy was built on that irony. It tells a goofy tale of looking for love, and counseling, in all the wrong places. The Actors Company Theatre’s revival — the first in New York in more than 30 years — gets off to light and airy start. But about midway into the session, er, play, things sag. You may be ready to announce, “I’m sorry, but our time is up.”
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March 25, 2014
Many ’80s artifacts are best gone for good: Fond memories of REO Speedwagon, shoulder pads and ALF are better than the reality. The same is true of Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy — although it’s hard to tell whether the play itself is outdated or the TACT company mucked up its revival. Durang, who deservedly won a Tony last year for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike</i., has come a long way since 1982, when Beyond Therapy bombed on Broadway — only 21 performances, despite a cast headed by John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest.
READ THE REVIEWMarch 26, 2014
Beyond Therapy begins with the blind date from hell: Having been introduced through a personal ad, Bruce and Prudence meet for the first time in a restaurant. He says, "I hope you don’t think I’m too macho for you." He also tells her she has beautiful breasts. He tears up, puts his head down on the table, and sobs. And, in passing, he mentions Bob, his male lover. Of course, he adds, we are all born bisexual: "If you took a child to Plato’s Retreat, he’d be attracted to both sexes."
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March 25, 2014
Beyond Therapy is . . . just beyond! From the witty absurdist playwright Christopher Durang, whose hysterical Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike took a Tony Award last season, this revival by TACT/The Actors Company Theatre, at the Beckett at Theatre Row, will have you rolling with laughter as Prudence and Bruce explore romance when they meet through an ad she placed in a paper. This zany, wacky farce finds them meeting in a Restaurant, as he compliments her breasts and contacts and proceeds to tell her about his male lover Bob saying “I hate guys . . . I’m bi-sexual,” to which she retorts “you’re insane.”
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March 28, 2014
She’s wishy-washy. He’s a partial crackpot (self-described). She lives a lonely life with two cats and a ticking biological clock. He leads a lonely life or maybe just an unconventional one with his live-in boyfriend. These flailing 30-somethings, Prudence and Bruce, are at the center of Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy, which had a brief run on Broadway in 1982 and is being revived at the Beckett Theater. (Robert Altman made a movie of it in 1986.) This Actors Company Theater production, directed by Scott Alan Evans, has a few nice performances and a sleek set (by Thomas Cariello), but it doesn’t make much of a case for Mr. Durang’s play, which hasn’t worn well as a romantic comedy or as a satire on therapy culture.
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