The Motherf**ker with the Hat

The Motherf**ker with the Hat, at Broadway's Schoenfeld Theatre
Gratuitous Violins rating: *1/2 out of ****

A few years ago I saw a Broadway play that I didn't think I'd like. I had an open slot during one of my New York City trips and friends recommended it, so I went to TKTS and gave Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty a chance. Well, I loved it.

I was hoping the same thing would happen with The Motherf**ker with the Hat. I hadn't intended to see Stephen Adly Guirgis' play but it got terrific reviews, so I reconsidered and bought a (full price) ticket.

This time, sadly, I should have gone with my gut. It's not that I found the play so bad that I wish there'd been an intermission so I could have fled. It's just that I found it deeply disappointing and forgettable.

Let's start with the profanity.

I'll admit that The Motherf**ker with the Hat was funny. Director Anna D. Shapiro, whose work I admired in August: Osage County, kept things moving briskly. But I felt like the laughter was the titillating kind that comes from hearing naughty words. To me, going for a cheap laugh is just lazy writing - a sign that you can't think of anything witty or clever or meaningful to say. And after awhile, they lose their shock value.

Now, what was the point of this play?

I really tried to figure out what Guirgis was trying to say and honestly, I'm not sure. I mean, I know it's about people struggling with addictions - to drugs, alcohol, sex, violence. But it's not done in an especially interesting or compelling way. He's created a bunch of shallow, unsavory characters who mostly swear, shout, grow angry and betray each other for 90 minutes.

Bobby Cannavale is Jackie, an ex-convict and addict who has a longtime and volatile relationship with his girlfriend, Veronica (Elizabeth Rodriguez). When he finds a man's hat in his apartment, he becomes enraged, believing that Veronica is having an affair. His search for the motherf**ker to whom it belongs sets the play's events in motion.

Chris Rock, in his Broadway debut, is Ralph D., Jackie's AA sponsor who's trying to help him stay on the straight and narrow. Annabella Sciorra is Ralph's wife, Victoria. And rounding out the cast is Yul Vasquez as Julio, Jackie's supportive cousin.

Now, I have nothing against unsavory characters. For example, I thought Steven Pasquale was riveting as a total bully in reasons to be pretty. But the characters have to be more than caricatures. I need to feel something - hate them, love, them, root for them, despise them. I just wasn't drawn in by any of these people.

Cannavale was fine, but he played the same thuggish guy that I saw him play last summer in Trust. Rodriguez's Veronica is profane and hot-tempered from beginning to end. She's the latest example of an unfortunate tendency I've noticed to scream your way through a role. Rock seemed overpowered by everyone else onstage.

For me, Vasquez' Julio was the most interesting person in the play. When he talked about events from his and Jackie's childhood it put a restrained, touching and human face on the characters that I thought The Motherf**ker with the Hat sorely needed.

Anyway, this is the play's final week on Broadway. It garnered a slew of Tony nominations, critical acclaim and the producers announced that they recouped their investment. So I'm definitely in the minority. This one just wasn't for me.

Trust

Trust, at the 2nd Stage Theatre off-Broadway.
Gratuitous Violins rating: ** out of ****

The description on the 2nd Stage Web site says Trust "explores the corrosive effect of power on relationships."

Actually, Power would be a better title. Paul Weitz' play deals with what happens when one person has the upper hand and how that can change depending on the circumstances, sometimes in the blink of an eye.

Weitz is best known for working with his brother Chris as a director and screenwriter (About a Boy, American Pie). But he's also a playwright and he's penned a quirky dark comedy about two couples in failing relationships whose lives intersect.

What drew me to Trust was the cast, notably Zach Braff and Bobby Cannavale, two actors whose films I've enjoyed - Braff in Garden State and Cannavale in The Station Agent.

Braff plays Harry, an Internet millionaire who sold his company before the dot.com bust and spends his days giving money away through his charitable foundation. He's sweet, funny, a little neurotic, not all that happy with his life.

On a whim, Harry visits a dominatrix. She turns out to be his former high school classmate Prudence, a no-nonsense Sutton Foster. If you only know Foster from musical comedy, it's almost worth it just to see her in a very different role.

Ari Graynor as Harry's wife, Aleeza, and Cannavale as Morton, Prudence's boyfriend, do a good job with unsympathetic characters. Aleeza, a painter who's stopped painting, struck me as a whiny and grating. Morton is a brilliant but hot-tempered tough guy who never realized his potential.

The problem is, there's not much depth to Trust. The characters were so broadly drawn, it was hard to feel much of anything for them or their problems. And while the play has its humorous moments, in the end it seemed slight and inconsequential.

I did enjoy the opening scene, with Foster in her skimpy black getup, all the tools of her trade laid out on a metal cart, and Braff as her nervous customer. The interaction between the two of them was pretty funny.

Besides shocking us with the dominatrix angle and a plot twist or two, I'm not sure of the point that Weitz was trying to make. Sometimes I think contemporary drama can be like modern art - I enjoy looking at it but the deeper meaning escapes me.

Still, I don't regret seeing Trust. It's always interesting to take in a new play. And to be fair, I saw an early preview. Perhaps this one simply was too weird for me.