by Warren Leight
At the John Golden Theatre
Reviewed by Brian R. Adams for Theatre Reviews Limited
"Side Man," now a Tony award nominee for Best Play, is more than worth the price of Broadway admission. With its assured ensemble acting, dynamic direction and moving script, "Side Man" succeeds on all levels.
While all the performances in "Side Man" are solid, special note should be taken with Frank Wood's depiction of Gene, the jazzman at the heart of the story. Frank succeeds in creating a wonderfully complex character that is at once a modern day hollow man and a musician full of life. Gene is obsessed with his trumpet to the exclusion of everything else, including his wife and kid. It is with his wife (the superb Edie Falco) that we can see the destruction Gene's indifference causes. When we meet her she is bursting with energy, but as time goes by in her unhappy marriage she becomes a broken woman, constantly drunk and often times cruel to the child that takes care of her. Frank and Edie's relationship explodes on the stage like a new born star, then slowly fades into a black hole of recriminations. It is horrifying to witness, yet completely compelling. My only reservation with the play is in the use of the narrator (the at times to smug for his own good, Robert Stella) whose curious detachment from the drama on stage makes him often unlikable, and less frequently, bratty.
In a season where Broadway is filled with revivals and imports, "Side Man" stands alone as a new American play that was developed by theaters in our area (New York Stage & Film, CSC, and The Roundabout), that features actors who have been with it from the first reading, and that has something extremely pertinent to say. Go see it before its too late!
Reviewed on Wednesday, April 28, 1999 (Opened on November 8, 1998)