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Last week, the Broadway play All In: Comedy About Love got very dramatic about money – weekly box office, specifically, with grosses topping $1 million, an impressive feat for any play not named Mary. Figure in that All In isn’t really a play at all, but a collection of readings by the short comic fiction writer Simon Rich and I thought the box office tally seemed something akin to a Christmas miracle.
Then I actually saw All In, and count me among the Rich converts. Directed by the ever nimble Alex Timbers and performed by a rotating cast of four actors – I was lucky to get the truly excellent John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and Richard Kind – the 90-minute All In is a perfect holiday snickerdoodle, a light and tasty snack no less funny for its brevity and lack of splashy production values.
To clear up any confusion about the nature of this rather strange beast – and judging by some audience reviews on various websites, there is indeed confusion – All In is a series of story readings, or performed readings rather, extremely well executed is the telling (all the more effective given that the performer perform sitting on stage in rather comfy looking mid-century modern easy chairs, reading from – and don’t be dissuaded – scripts).
I’m not sure if the material will differ depending on cast – upcoming performers include Lin-Manuel Miranda, Annaleigh Ashford, Hank Azaria, Aidy Bryant, David Cross, Jimmy Fallon and more (go here for fuller rundown) – but the Rich stories chosen for my night included four or five howlers and some amusing snacks (a series of brief “Missed Connections” written by dogs, as in (a paraphrase) “met you at the dog park the other day, we humped briefly, would like to get to know you better…”
The reviewed show kicks off with Mulaney – this show’s equivalent of a lead actor – walking solo onto David Korins’ hipster lounge-like setting (bookshelves, ironically elaborate chandeliers, and a risers on either of the stage for the terrific, married Indie Folk musical duo The Bengsons, here performing music by Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields in what amounts to brief and pleasant between-readings palate cleaners).
Mulaney’s first piece could well take its place in his stand-up specials. He tells – hilariously – a shaggy dog tale that begins with a very old joke about a hard-of-hearing genie and a bar owner with a “12-inch pianist.” You might have heard that one before, but Rich – a former writer for Saturday Night Live and the son of theater critic-turned-HBO producer Frank Rich and brother of novelist Nathaniel Rich – uses that joke to expand the story onto increasingly absurd and very funny territory, which perfectly suits Mulaney’s low-key style (Mulaney and Rich met during their SNL stints). The tale even turns slightly sweet – as Rich’s stories tend to do.
Among the other longer stories: Mulaney and Armisen as grizzled old pirates – lots of “arrrrs” – who love treasure hunting, grog, the open sea and anachronisms – Armisen’s pirate complains of being lactose intolerant, while Mulaney’s peg-legged, one-eyed scoundrel ponders the “subtext” of their pirate meanderings.
The comic wrench in the crow’s nest comes in the form a sweet, little girl (Goldsberry) who has stowed away on the ship. First instinct is to toss her to the sharks, but when they learn she can read maps, the two illiterate pirates see opportunity. Soon enough, the two old pirates are worrying about the kid’s sleep cycles, whether daggers are an appropriate plaything and pondering a visit to the Bermuda Triangle where, they hear, the schools are terrific.
Like so many of Rich’s stories, the pirate tale, for all its genre-specific detail and period-non-specific lingo, is ultimately about love in unexpected places, specifically a modern-day Millennial-Gen Z type of newfound domestic love and the unexpected bliss it can bring.
Another case in point: In his story “The Big Nap,” primarily read by Armisen and Goldsberry, a Sam Spade-type who speaks as if his dialogue was penned by Dashiell Hammett is hired by a mysterious young female new to the scene. The twist: The gumshoe is a two-year-old boy, the newcomer his baby sister. What Rich so cleverly accomplishes here is the expert matching of the kids’ lives – a missing stuffed unicorn, bafflement at the conspiratorial whisperings of the adult world – with the tough, streetwise talk of noir from Bogart to Chinatown. And in the perfect Richian touch, the newly acquainted, initially combative siblings ultimately decide they kinda like each other, and decide it’ll be them against the world.
Other stories explore similar themes in equally bizarre situations: In 1880s London, a very suave Joseph Merrick, aka The Elephant Man, flirts shamelessly with the smitten wife of his very baffled doctor (Goldsberry and Kind, respectively). Another story has Kind as an ailing, octogenarian talent scout taking care of his dying wife (Goldsberry), and has a trick or two up his old show biz sleeve when Death (Armisen) comes knocking. Seems even Death isn’t immune to “I can make you a star” flattery.
The final story of the evening is set far into the future, when humans have ditched the dead Earth for a new planet. When a little girl reads her school report about how her great grandfather met her great grandmother – mutual bonding over Arrested Development was key – it becomes clear that she’s talking about author Rich (played by Mulaney) and his wife. Absurdity and humor meet domestic bliss once and for all and in the most direct and personal terms in the author’s arsenal. And that’s worth reading.
Title: All In: Comedy About Love
Venue: Broadway’s Hudson Theatre
Written By: Simon Rich
Directed By: Alex Timbers
Cast: John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, Richard Kind, Renée Elise Goldsberry
Running Time: 1 hr 30 min (no intermission)
