Review - Straight White Men

I've read a lot about Young Jean Lee over the years; though I haven't seen one of her plays before, I do have a sense of her reputation as a provocateur and experimental writer.  When her play Straight White Men was announced for the new Broadway theater run by Second Stage, I knew I would want to see it.  One, new play.  Two, new play by Asian-American woman (hello, first time this has happened on Broadway, which is stupid beyond belief, but there it is).  All signs pointed towards my getting a ticket, though I did have some obstacles to overcome.  (I guess I should say there are some spoilers to come, but I'm also going to hedge a bit, because the way the play unfolds is something to behold.)

My obstacles were mainly with what I perceived to be the pandering of doing a show about straight white men.  Aren't MOST plays about straight white men??  I'm personally sick of most of them.  (Not really, but you know what I mean.)  Not only straight white men, but tv and movie star straight white men.  Sigh.  And it just seemed so odd to me that this is the play that Young Jean Lee would want to be her debut on Broadway.  I resisted the play for quite a while and then...I don't know.  Then her genius just sort of slapped me in the face.

When you arrive at the theater, there is really loud, explicit rap music being performed.  After my ear adjusted and I started tapping my foot to the beat, I realized the music was being performed by women.  My seat was in the balcony on the aisle and a few minutes before showtime, a pleasant young person came up and introduced themselves to me.  It was Ty Defoe, a performer in the play.  He just wanted to tell me that he was there if I needed him and he hoped I enjoyed the play.  It was a nice touch.  I could see that Ty was making the rounds all through the balcony and I can only assume another actor was doing the same in the orchestra.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

When the show started, Ty and T.L. Thompson came in front of the shimmering mylar curtain to introduce themselves and give us a bit of context about the play.  They apologized if the music made the audience uncomfortable (wink wink) and told us a bit about themselves. Their interlude was terrific, pointing out that they were playing Person in Charge 1 and Person in Charge 2, and that neither of them are, in fact, straight white men.  Ty is Native American and identifies as two-spirit (a term used in Native American nations to indicate gender fluidity).  T.L. identifies as gender binary.  The two of them gently skewered the fact that they would be there to try to understand the straight white man, as they hoped people would try to understand them.  It was a terrific way to start.  We also saw Person in Charge 1 and 2 throughout the evening, actually moving the actors from place to place and being the ones who made things happen.  This felt more amazing as the night progressed.

When the mylar curtain lifted, we could see a plain beige set of a plain ordinary living room, with two guys lounging on the furniture.  One is playing a video game and the other is trying to distract him.  You could tell by their chemistry and interaction that they have known each other for a long time and know how to push each other's buttons.  It turns out they are brothers, both home in their father's house for Christmas.  We then meet the third brother, who is the oldest, and the father, a widower who is happy to have his sons home.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

It's all pretty ordinary, with lots of bro banter and funny, recognizable dialogue that immediately sets the milieu of professional, supposedly 'woke' men.  They reminisce, they tease, they do bad 'white guy dancing.'  It's all fun and yet I was still resisting.  Throughout maybe the first twenty minutes or so, all I could think was that I wanted Ty and T.L to come back and I wanted to see a play about them.  But, I don't know, at some point, something changed.

Maybe it was when I noticed the set.  It was rather like a display case, with a plaque on the floor that said Straight White Men.  So, suddenly, it was like I was looking at a museum diorama or a zoo exhibit.  Then one of the characters, the oldest brother, Matt, suddenly started weeping during dinner.  It was sudden and unexpected, both to the other characters and to the audience.  This is what sets the rest of the play in motion.

Young Jean Lee has said in interviews that she thinks the three-act naturalistic drama is the 'straight white man of theater forms.'  I don't think she's wrong.  Although this production is performed in 90 minutes with no intermission, it is indeed done in three scenes or acts.  The first is the set up, the second is the attempt at problem solving, and the third is the consequence.  It's intriguing.  The younger brothers try to find out why Matt was crying and it's from here their lives unravel.  All their lives, Matt was the brilliant one, the revolutionary, the socialist, the Harvard graduate.  So to see him somehow different than they remember him is troubling.

So, yes, we have a play about straight white men and their privilege, but it's somehow heartbreaking and about more than whiteness.  It's also somehow about gender and roles and ideas of success.  That even people aware of the bullshit are trapped by the bullshit.  These brothers are all supposed to be aware of their privilege and grew up with the idea that everyone deserves a shot, but then suddenly they're not able to do the same for each other.  Matt has been home, working as a temp, and taking care of his father, in essence, taking on the 'feminine' role in the family.  This seems to make him happy, but his brothers can't accept it.  And the fact that the people who love Matt the most are the ones who end up nearly destroying him (but do they? that's a big question) is profoundly sad and recognizable.  Hearing one brother call another brother a 'loser', which is I guess the worst thing one white man can say about another, was devastating.

Watching Ty and T.L. come on and off stage to move the actors around was incredibly moving to me and realizing that our main character was Matt, even though he had very few lines and had trouble expressing himself.  I felt that he was sort of my conduit into the play - the way I could have trouble expressing myself, too. Josh Charles was terrific as the middle brother, Jake, who is a banker going through a divorce, and Armie Hammer was the youngest son, Drew, a teacher and writer.  Both of them were really fantastic and had such a natural rapport, they really seemed like brothers.  All of the acting was first-rate, actually.

I can't really express how full and rich Straight White Men turned out to be for me.  I thought I knew what it was going to be and then I was completely upended.  Just the way everything seemed to be turned upside down - and not just for the effect of turning things upside down, but to show us ourselves, I think - was genius.  I don't know, I guess I just found it to be profoundly funny, profoundly sad, and profoundly unique.  I wish I had seen it sooner so I could go back to try to get inside the play more.  When will I ever learn to not wait until closing week to see something?!  If you have time this week, go check out Straight White Men.  I don't think this will be the last play Young Jean Lee presents on Broadway and I look forward to what she brings us next.