‘It’s Only A Play’ Is Wickedly Funny

Terrance McNally’s play is not so much a love letter from a shy, smitten admirer as a mash note sent by a stalker who’s written it in capital letters and smeared it with what may be bodily fluids. Whatever it is, it’s a pure hoot, a rollicking comedy with perfect casting and deft direction in Jack O’Brien that gleefully dissects modern Broadway and doesn’t pretend to mask its targets by using fake names. There are jokes about James Franco, Kelly Ripa, Alec Baldwin, Tommy Tune, Liza Minnelli, Shia LaBeouf — in legal trouble, of course — and snide comments about shows like Matilda the Musical and Mamma Mia! Ben Brantley, the powerful theater critic for The New York Times, is mentioned several times and even becomes the butt of a prank. Four-time Tony Award-winning McNally has earned his right to laugh — this is his 21st Broadway production — and his knife work is like that of a five-star chef: enough to bleed, but good-naturedly enough to not nick the bone. The seven-character play, which made its Broadway debut Thursday at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, is an offstage look at theater egos after the curtain comes down. Those in the audience who adore the minutia of the theater world — everyone knows who Tovah Feldshuh is, right? — will laugh the loudest.