Man From Nebraska

Man From Nebraska is playing at the Second Stage Theatre located at 305 West 43rd Street. It runs two hours five minutes with on intermission. The play closes on March 12, 2017.

Tracy Letts is the playwright. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for August: Osage County (2008) and a finalist for Man From Nebraska (2004). Tracy won a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award as an actor for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2013).

Reed Birney won a Tony Award for The Humans (2016), Drama Desk Award for Casa Valentine (2014) and an Obie Award for Circle Mirror Transformation (2010).

Ken Carpenter (Reed Birney) and his wife Nancy (Anette O’Toole) are a middle age couple that have been married for forty years. They attend church and pray before each meal. His mother Cammie is very sick. She has trouble breathing and has an oxygen mask on. It seems she has dementia or alzheimer’s. They visit her often.

Ken tells Nancy something is missing from his life, he doesn’t believe in god anymore. Reverend Todd (William Ragsdale) tells him that what he needs is to get way. He hasn’t had a vacation in a long time.

Nancy is okay with the idea of him going away without her. Their daughter Ashley (Annika Boras) does not agree.

On the plane to London Ken sits next to Pat Monday (Heidi Armbruster). She is in London for business and invites him to meet her sometime.

Ken strikes up a conversation with the bartender Tamyra (Nana Mensah) in the hotel. She tells him the only reason she is talking to him is American’s tip well. He is drinking ginger ale. Ken tells her he doesn’t drink. She convinces him to have a cocktail. Tamyra boyfriend Bud Todd (Max Gordon Moore) picks her up at the bar.

Back in the states Nancy is falling apart. She is nervous and crying all the time. They have not been apart since they were married. The pastor introduces her to his father Bud Todd (Tom Bloom). Bud starts hanging around the house.

Things happen which you will have to see the show to find out what they are.

Man From Nebraska is an enjoyable show.

The set is minimal. Each scene location is enough to let you know where you are but not enough to distract you.

Reed Birney and Annette O’Toole do a remarkable job.

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 a photo, the click on return to album, the return to gallery for this and other shows.