Loosely based (I presume) on the major journalism scandal of the late 1990s when Stephen Glass, writer at The New Republic, was exposed for not only embellishing quotes and facts in his stories, but for fabricating the stories entirely. This is one of the worst shows I've seen recently. I checked my watch after 40 minutes and was disheartened to see we were not yet halfway through. At 105 minutes with no intermission, you can't help but wonder if they made that choice to avoid an empty theater for Act II.
The musical numbers are actively bad and certainly not memorable. No one in the cast is great at singing, and this was compounded by sound issues throughout. The plot meanders slowly, though not much happens. Ben Levi Ross is Ethan Dobson, and his easy white male privilege is juxtaposed with Hannah Cruz's Robin Martinez, a woman of color who struggles to get published even once. But it's not enough to build an interesting story. And what is Scott Bakula doing here? He plays Conrad O'Brien, an enabler who sees himself in the young Dobson and ignores plenty of warning signs in favor of expertly written prose. In the final scene, dozens of magazine spreads from the set backdrop fall to the floor - and all I could think about was the poor person who has to hang them back up for each show. MCC Theater |
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