"The Pushover"

"The Pushover" at Chain Theatre is written by John Patrick Shanley who gave us some great works in "Doubt" and "Moonstruck". Another play that Shanley wrote, "Danny and The Deep Blue Sea" was another show that I have seen a few times which was great at the Lortel Theatre and awful at the Davenport Theatre.  The world premier of "The Pushover" is not one of Shanley's best works, in fact, it is awful. Directed by Kirk Gostkowski, "The Pushover" never gets moving. The writing is all over the place as the audience sits and tries to make sense of the play unfolding before them.  The four person show does not have great acting in it, Rebecca De Mornay, who I was looking forward to seeing onstage was bland, uninspiring on stage. Christina Toth as Soochi was out of her depth as a stage actor as was Christopher Sutton as the Therapist/ Kenny. Di Zhu as Pearl was effective at times, at other times the writing drowned out her acting ability.he four person show does not have great acting in it, Rebecca De Mornay, who I was looking forward to seeing onstage was bland, uninspiring on stage. Christina Toth as Soochi was out of her depth as a stage actor as was Christopher Sutton as the Therapist/ Kenny. Di Zhu as Pearl was effective at times, at other times the writing drowned out her acting ability.

With a very small stage at Chain, Jackson Berkley put together a very slipshod effort in the staging. Set in two places, New Mexico spa and a restaurant in Queens, New York, we never get a jolt from the sets. The set never makes us immersed in the ninety minutes. Neither does the lighting make any sense. Dariel Garcia for no reason at all hits us with Industrial lighting in the middle of the play. The brightness takes the audience out of their element by doing this. The lighting belonged in either romantic or glam. This play and its writing belongs where it is, off off Broadway. I do not believe that "The Pushover" will go anywhere bigger because the story is that bad. Today, however, you never know where it will end up,but it truly belongs on the shelf where it belongs.

Where Shanley was trying to make this play edgy, the direction as well as the acting prevented this. I am not sure that the stage size too helped this play. Small and inefficient, "The Pushover" was never able to have the actors move more which made the blocking difficult for sure.

"The Pushover" never gets traction in the unfolding of the plot. Evelyn has several resorts but other than she steals money from her man when she was a heterosexual we never find out how. Soochi was sent to her to be disposed with; Soochi has no personality and we wonder what Pearl sees in her.

The opening scene where Pearl is at a therapist let's us know from the start that the play is poorly written. The therapist is not engaging, Pearl is all over the place with her thoughts and the audience gets confused by the interaction. It would have been better if Pearl was more forthcoming about her life; this way we would have seen more foundation to her, her life as well as her thoughts about life. Even though we get a glimpse of Pearls life, it is not meaningful in the way that we genuinely see her as she is.

"The Pushover" is a huge disappointment from beginning to end and certainly can be missed.

Broadway Bob Massimi, You Tube, Iran, Off Off Broadway, Rebecca De Mornay, Hollywood, The Cradle, Risky Business, Tik Toc, New York Lifestyles Magazine.