Airline Highway

Airline Highway is playing at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre located at 261 West 47th Street. It runs two hours fifteen minutes with one intermission. The play will close on June 14, 2015.

Joe Mantello is the director. He won two Tony Awards for Assassins (2004) and Take Me Out (2003). Joe wan nominated for four Tony Awards for The Normal Heart (2011 Actor), Glengarry Glen Rose (2005), Love! Valour! Compassion! (1995) and Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (1993 Actor). He was also nominated for an Emmy for his role in The Normal Heart in 2014.

Lisa D’Amour is the playwright. She won an Obie in 2003 for Nita & Zita. Her play Detroit was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010. The play won an Obie in 2013 for Best New American play.

K. Todd Freeman was nominated for a Tony Award for Airline Highway (2015) and The Son of Jacob Zula (1993).

Julie White won a Tony Award in 2006 for The Little Dog Laughed and was nominated in 2015 for a Tony Award for Airline Highway. She is known for her role in the television show Grace Under Fire (Nadine Swobuda) and Transformer series (Judy Witwicky).

The show has also been nominated for two more 2015 Tony Awards for Best Costume Design Of A Play (David Zinn) and Best Lighting Design Of a Play (Japhy Weideman).

The play takes place at the Hummingbird Motel on Airline Highway, New Orleans, Lain the parking lot. It is the first week in May 2015.

The Hummingbird is a rundown out of the way motel with its share of misfits. Some live there and others have come to visit. They have come to pay their respects to Miss Ruby (Judith Roberts) before she dies. Miss Ruby was once a famous burlesque dancer in New Orleans French Quarter. The people there are Sissy (K. Todd Freeman)a transvestite who looks after Miss Ruby, Krista (Caroline Neff) a homeless stripper, Tanya (Julie White) a substance abusing sex worker, Terry (Tim Edward Rhoze) the handyman, Wayne(Scott Jaeck) the manager of the motel and Francis (ken Marks) a drifter and poet.

Bait Boy (Joe Tippet) brings his girlfriend’s daughter Zoe (Carolyn Braver). She is doing a report for school and is interviewing the people there. Bait boy use to live at the motel with Krista. He left for a better life.

We get to know the people thru Zoe’s interviews. The people are down and out. There stories tell us how they got to where they are now.

In the second act the parking lot is all deck out. Miss Ruby wanted a celebration before she passes on, which is near. It seems the lives of the people there are the ones she help one way or another.

The play is quirky and not for everyone. The second act is the strongest. That’s when things start to make sense. I’m not going to tell what happens in case you want to see the show. But one of the problems was it was hard hearing some of the actors at times.

Joe Mantello did a great job directing. The cast did an outstanding job.

K. Todd Freeman well deserves his Tony Award nomination. He did a fantastic job.

Tim Edward Rhoze was amazing performance as the man trying to hold his lift together.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich

Photos by Annazor

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for recent photos. Click on recent photos for this and other shows.