By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”)
Over the course of the last several years, Crescent City Stage has established itself as the premiere equity theatre company in New Orleans, partially filling the void left in the wake of the dissolution of Southern Rep.
While Southern Rep was largely a community theatre company with an equity contract, Crescent City Stage took a different tack, emphasizing its connection with Actor’s Equity as an almost defiant act. While all the productions have been quite stellar, there is no doubt the extra cost has been a burden the company has happily carried.
The latest production, Tiny Beautiful Things, directed by co-founder and executive director Michael Newcomer, continues this new tradition with a poignant treatment of a deeply moving play adapted by Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) from the Cheryl Strayed book. Marshall Heyman and director Thomas Kail (Hamilton) are also credited as co-conceivers
In the book, Strayed related a period in which she took on an anonymous and unpaid gig as an advice columnist with the mysterious nom de plume of “Sugar.” Her style of advice was blunt and highly philosophical, based on her own life experiences. She dealt with major life issues like sexual abuse in her own family, the loss of a child in infancy, drug abuse and caring for an elderly, dying parent in ways that connected directly to her audience of readers.
Tenea Intriago takes on the challenging role of Sugar, an intense and, at first, distant writer, who admits she should be turning her attention to writing her second book and not becoming involved in the lives of her column’s readers. Alas, she cannot stop herself.
As she plunges deep into the questions proffered by the representative three letter writers – Rashif Ali, Helena Wang and Steve Zissis – she reveals more and more about her own traumatic upbringing. It is through this raw experience of sharing that Sugar endears herself to her reading (and in-person) audience and makes a powerful and unbreakable connection with the letter writers.
Ali, Wang and Zissis all deliver extraordinary performances to match that of Intriago’s and the one act play is filled with a large doses of humanity, charity and empathy, making Tiny Beautiful Things an extremely moving theatrical experience.
The fact is Sugar derives as much healing from dispensing her life-honed wisdom as her letter writers do when receiving her advice.
“True healing is a fierce place. It’s a giant place, a place of monstrous beauty and glimmering light, and you have to work really hard to get there,” she counsels one of her letter writers.
She speaks with authority based on her own pain and joy. The letter writers are able to embark on their own healing paths by heeding her sage advice. Sometimes the letter writers just need to vent and Sugar is there as well to analyze what is truly bothering them.
The beauty of this work is found in the relations between Sugar and the letter writers. Sometimes, a seemingly unrelated story finds resonance in what a letter writer has asked or written. In the case of one remorseful letter writer who signs off as Thief, Sugar relates an incident in which a neighborhood kid stole a small item from a garage sale she had held years previously. After a time, the boy gets to know Sugar better and she confronts him again.
“Why did you steal my camera case?” she asks for the final time.
The unexpected answer is given. “Because I was lonely.”
“There are only a few times anyone has been self-aware and nakedly honest as that boy was with me in that moment. When he said what he said, I almost fell off the steps. Perhaps because when he told about himself, he told me something about myself. I used to steal things too.”
This is a very intimate work and at times deals with some very disturbing and dark material. Yet, at play’s end, it finds resonance in the possibilities of the human condition and is a very uplifting experience, too.
With original music by Donald Markowitz (“I’ve Had the Time of My Life'”) played by Grammy-nominated trumpeter Branden Lewis and beautifully-lit lighting designs by Benjamin Norman, Tiny Beautiful Things also enjoys great projections by James Lanius III.
Tiny Beautiful Things (90 minutes with no intermission), adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos and directed by Michael Newcomer, finishes its run at Marquette Theatre on the Loyola campus in New Orleans with nightly performances Thurs., March 22 through Sat., March 24 at 7:30 p.m. The final matinee performance is on Sun., March 25 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are available here.
