After premiering two years ago at Minneapolis's Guthrie Theatre, Tony Kushner's new play began previews last night at the Public, one day later than planned, "to provide the cast and crew with an additional dress rehearsal." Kushner has a brilliant mind but someone should have convinced him this mashup is not a title, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures, especially not for the fraction of the audience who know their Shaw and Eddy. The New York Observer says it concerns:
"a retired longshoreman in Brooklyn, Gus Marcantonio, who asks his three children, an academic, a labor lawyer and a laborer, and his sister, a nun, to come home (some of their partners in tow) to discuss his decision to end his life. One suicide attempt, in the brownstone's upstairs bath, has already gone awry.
"The family fights and roars, negotiates and accuses; all their skeletons, and some cast members, come out of the closet. Suicide is a major theme in the timely show, but so is the sorry state of America, the prospects for continuing social revolution, the institution of marriage, the allure of prostitution, parenthood, sex, the real estate bubble and more."
The length of the title forecasts its running time, more than three and half hours. TIHGTCASWAKTTS opens May 5 with performances through June 12. Tickets are $75.
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