Last night was opening night at Sal’s show, “Living Out” at the Great Aunt Stella Center. It was actually the first time I got to see Sal acting onstage, and it was well worth the wait.
The show itself is intriguing — it explores two couples, each with a small child, and primarily focuses on how the mothers balance their work and family responsibilities. The connection between them — one is a lawyer going back to work after having a child, and the other is the nanny hired to take care of that child while her own child is at school — is what drives the story forward.
Throughout the play, you see countless times in which their parallel stories are virtually identical — each mother having a similar conversation with her husband, the set of mommies talking at the park in virtually the same conversation as the nannies at a later time, and so on. It does a great job of showing how despite several characters’ frequently saying, “They’re not like us” about the others, there are strikingly common themes in all of their lives.
Naturally my focus was on Sal, who plays the husband to the lead nanny character. He was, objectively speaking, BRILLIANT. One of my friends in the audience, who hadn’t met Sal previously, was surprised to discover that he was faking an accent. I really felt he did a great job throughout… Even though the bastard made me get a little teary-eyed at one point.
The other cast members were also terrific. All four “leads” were excellent, and the supporting characters were almost uniformly great. Granted, there were a couple of fumbled lines, but the actors recovered gracefully in each case. I’m sure there were a few opening night jitters, and I’m looking forward to seeing the show again in the near future.
Special thanks to the large number of friends that came out to see opening night with me. We were easily 2/3 of the audience (probably 3/4) and I was thrilled that we could be so supportive of Sal and Charlotte’s Off-Broadway.
“Living Out” plays at the Great Aunt Stella Center (the “Uptown Self-Help Church” just east of the intersection of McDowell and Trade/Elizabeth) through March 7th. You can buy tickets at the door with cash/check, or use a credit card prior to the day of the performance at this website.
Any plans of this show coming to JAX, Fl?? Sounds awesome.
[...] of my favorite shows this season: Bat Boy, Dangerous, Educating Rita, Living Out, Southern Rapture, The Full Monty, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. There were many other enjoyable [...]