Theater Review: 'Clybourne Park' at Music Theatre of Connecticut

Review by Nancy Sasso Janis

The Music Theatre of Connecticut Mainstage season is presenting “Clybourne Park,” the first and only play to ever win the “triple crown” of The Olivier Award, The Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. Bruce Norris is the playwright of this hard hitting work that is constructed very differently than most in that it is two separate stories set 50 years apart concerning the sale of one house.

The 2010 play was inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun” and is set in the city of Chicago. The show’s director Pamela Hill notes that it “doesn't single out one or two issues to discuss, but touches on at least twelve, with territoriality as opposed to race as its central topic according to the playwright.”

“Without apologizing, all of the characters are trying to say and do what they believe is the right thing for themselves and their families but the characters (and the audience) get the rug pulled out from under them when they are forced into unfamiliar territory,” Hill adds.

As usual, MTC has assembled an excellent group of Equity actors to play completely different characters in the two acts and the acting range of them all is on display. I appreciated the rapid fire dialogue, especially in the second act, and enjoyed with fellow audience members the lighter comedic moments. There are also a few parallels drawn by the playwright between the two acts that I heard the audience notice.

I was delighted to see Susan Haefner return to this stage to play Bev in the first act set in 1959 and Kathy, a lawyer, in 2009. Haefner, who won a Connecticut Critics Circle award for her work in “Tenderly, the Rosemary Clooney Musical” at MTC, can do it all and I did my best not to miss a minute of her performance. Frank Mastrone, who recently played Tito in “Lend Me a Tenor” at MTC, gives a very strong portrayal of Russ, Bev’s grieving husband and Dan in the second act.

Rae Janeil, an actor most recently seen as Squeak in Ivoryton Playhouse’s “The Color Purple,” demonstrates a quiet strength as the black housekeeper Francine in 1959 and then the character Lena 50 years later. SJ Hannah begins by playing Albert, the husband of Francine and then portrays Kevin in the second act.

Nick Roesler , who appeared as Jacques in Capital Classics’ “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” is appropriately bombastic as disgruntled neighbor Karl in 1959 and then morphs into Steve after the years pass. In her debut at MTC, Allie Seibold masterfully portrays Betsy, the deaf and pregnant wife of Karl at first and then the character Lindsey in the second act.

Matt Mancuso returns to this stage to portray the minister Jim in the first act and Tom, a lawyer, in the second. Mancuso appeared as Bob Crewe in “Jersey Boys” and was also part of Valley Shakespeare’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

The set by Martin Scott Marchitto is ingenious in its design, as it begins as the gentrified home in the process of being packed up and then is reworked to the dilapidated living room during most of the intermission. Sound design by Jon Damast works well and lighting by RJ Romeo is equally effective. Dan O’Driscoll served as fight and intimacy choreographer and Dr. Sharon J. White provided cultural consulting. Elena Blue is the credited American Sign Language consultant. Equity member Abbey Murray, a recent graduate of West Conn, is the stage manager.

At the preview that I attended, there were at least a few actors who have appeared on this stage. I sat next to the talented actor John Treacy Egan.

“Clybourne Park” runs through Nov. 19 with performances on Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets at musictheatreofct.com/clybourne-park

Nancy Sasso Janis has been writing theater reviews since 2012 as a way to support local venues, and she posts well over 100 reviews each year. She became a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle in 2016. Her contributions of theatrical reviews, previews, and audition notices are posted in the Naugatuck Patch as well as the Patch sites closest to the venue. She is also a feature writer and theater reviewer for the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper. Her weekly column IN THE WINGS and theater reviews appear in the Thursday Weekend section of the paper.

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