Set immediately following one of the bloodiest plays in the canon, you aren’t disappointed by the macabre elements Taylor Mac chooses to incorporate into his new play.
Gary really does have something for everyone. The intellectual is oft entertained by high-brow humor and Shakespearean references. Those without a deep passion for Shakespeare are satiated by plenty of scatological humor.
Nathan Lane is, as [almost] always, divine. That said, perhaps his star power isn’t actually helping the show along. People come for him. He delivers. BUT that sort of stymies the potential of the show. We’ll see what happens in award season and how long it’ll run.
The eccentricity of the show cannot be distilled into any one plot point or element. Is it the Dead Penis Dance? It should be, but that doesn’t encapsulate it. Is it the corpse pissing on Nathan Lane? Nope. Though it made me fondly remember his hand-in-the-toilet episode on Difficult People. Is it the British accents loooong before they were a thing?
Gary deftly moves from what should be a horrific situation into a journey of self-discovery and improvement. This seasons answer to Something Rotten! it delivers the entertainment you’d expect. I suspect, though, the names on the marquis may be the bane of the show’s existence.
