It doesn't matter how long a play is: sometimes 75 minutes can feel like 3 hours if the play is bad, whereas a three hour play can initially make you groan internally and then flow along happily if the script and performance are in a well-oiled tandem.
Kenneth Lonergan Hold on to me darling (Lucile Lortel Theatre, until December 22) belongs to for the most partAs for the last category: it is long and seems long, but that's okay; not the gold standard, wow, but much more than enjoyable. This is a credit to Lonergan's captivating writing and a collection of unique, meticulously drawn performances led by Adam Driver as a famous country star named Strings (real name Clarence) wondering if he can/should give up all the trappings of fame for a simpler life after the death of his mother.
It's a real treat off-Broadway to see Driver, who was most recently seen on the big screen as the star of Francis Ford Coppola's controversial epic. MegapolisThere he is on horseback – he's so tall, he's really on horseback – on Lucille Lortel's compact stage. Theater fans last saw him on Broadway in Burn itfor which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He is known for playing powder keg characters. With characters like Adam in Girls, Charlie in Marriage storyand Pale in Burn itThe question, the seething threat, was when would Adam Driver leave? These characters burned memorably—thrashing, screaming, growling, and taking up space that could barely contain them—and Driver did it in such a way that you recoiled from their crackling fury.
“Driver Strings” is more subtle: the comedy that Driver leans neatly on is that Strings knows and acts like a big star (the guitar shatters in the opening minutes) while maintaining the humility of a small-town boy, the two qualities pitted against each other. The strings cannot deal with the real world in any way, but now they want to exist in it.
The play opens with Strings stripping down to his underwear (just put, Adam Driver fans) and receiving a massage from Nancy (Heather Burns), the first of two women in the play who more than match Strings' contradictions and eccentric impenetrability.
Heather Burns (left) and Adam Driver in “Hold On to Me Darling.”
Juliet Cervantes
If Driver accesses the strange inner world of a rock star exposed to the light of everyday life, Burns' character possesses the menacing elements that Driver typically possesses. Nancy begins to want String and his millions all to herself – and this includes manipulating his grief-stricken mind and calculatedly ostracizing anyone she perceives as competition. However, she also shows us Nancy's vulnerability and the basis of the damage from which her behavior stems.
The excellent Keith Nobbs as Jimmy, Strings' chief assistant, is one of those interlopers Nancy can't stand, as he is completely devoted to his master's service; Lonergan (this is ours Youth, Waverly Gallery, Lobby Hero) writes that this borders on something more than 100% professional dedication (like Smithers and Strings' “Mr. Burns”), with long hugs and ardent glances.
In our minds, this seems almost homophobic (as if we're being encouraged to think that Jimmy actually feels something more than unyielding devotion to String) that both actors wisely avoid emphasizing. One of the best scenes in the play is the confrontation between Jimmy and Nancy, when Jimmy erupts in a gleeful volley of outright bitchiness.
Essie (Adelaide Clements) is another obstacle in Nancy's eyes—a second cousin, twice transferred to Strings, and Nancy's polar opposite. She speaks directly and honestly, but her tenderness and her conflicted feelings for String hide a vein of steel and cunning that Clemens turns into a winning and unexpected performance for a character who could have been a much more irritating dupe.
Adam Driver (left) and C.J. Wilson in “Hold On to Me Darling.”
Juliet Cervantes
Duke (C.J. Wilson) displays a more welcome candor in a fine performance as Strings' down-to-earth brother, disillusioned – just like the rest of us; he, like Essie, becomes the audience's tribune – with the instability of Strings.
Walt Spangler's simple design features a series of basic rotating sets—a hotel bedroom, a living room, a funeral home, and finally a grocery store—and director Neil Pepe finds the perfect pace for the actors to weave three hours of text into a play that never drags or soars. It's whimsical rather than volcanic, especially with a final act twist that sends the play into other family surprise territory, featuring another standout performance from Frank Wood.
This episode at first seems like a rushed, too-late story-changing addition. However, like all the other things that shouldn't work in a long game, it finds its place in the capable hands of Pepe and his very good cast, led by Driver. The actor masters the art of quiet bewilderment and existential confusion. Only one long moment of menace broke his furrowed brow; when this happens, bracing for some kind of Driver explosion, you wait (ultimately in vain) for the inevitable detonation. Instead of, Hold on to me darling maintains his subtle mischief, smooth unwinding and dry delivery until the very end, while creating a true original – in this role Adam Driver does not give up.
