This biting comedy takes place behind the scenes during the Broadway run of a long lost Kafka play, introducing a cast of characters including a star who doesn’t understand the play, a disgruntled stage manager, a stoner set technician and an understudy trapped in a thankless job amidst all the comic chaos.
What Is the Story of The Understudy?
In a darkened Broadway theater, down-on-his luck (and somewhat bitter) actor Harry is getting just the break he needs—the chance to appear as the understudy for a major Hollywood action star in a two-man Kafka play currently performing to packed houses. But before Harry can formally recite his first lines at a midday “put-in” rehearsal, all hell breaks loose. One of the play’s two stars, Jake, doesn’t want Harry as his understudy; the stage manager running rehearsal turns out to be the jilted ex-fiancée Harry left at the altar, and the set technician assisting the day’s run through is so stoned everyone onstage is dodging flying set pieces. Will Jake, Harry and his ex get their act together in time for the curtain to go up?
""Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Justin Kirk and Julie White are a thoroughly excellent trio.""
New York Magazine
Dan Kois
""The full eye roll, virtually a reflex gesture for many New Yorkers, becomes a comic drama in itself in [star Julie] White’s hands—or should I say sockets? Even Ms. White’s...agile frame seems to embody perfectly a state of brittle anxiousness, like a tuning fork ever primed to be set quivering." "
The New York Times
Charles Isherwood
""[Director] Scott Ellis' production [of The Understudy] is impeccably cast and paced.""
Time Out New York
David Cote
""[Playwright] Theresa Rebeck's The Understudy is a masterpiece of comic clockwork. Pulverizingly funny!""
The Wall Street Journal
Terry Teachout
""The one-act gains considerable fizz from [director] Scott Ellis' punchy production and from the bristling interplay of its three fine actors, each of them exposing different shades of a profession that ricochets between glory and rejection.""
Variety
David Rooney
