![]() At some points it becomes a hassle to see the view from Ernestine’s family tree, given how quickly figures in her life disappear, and how children transform into grandchildren, then great-grandchildren. Down below, though, we are dutifully following an unrelenting parade of progeny embodied, “ Lehman Trilogy ”-style, by Flood, Finn, Jelks and Livingston. It’s there that we neatly see how the personal can meet the universal. Dwarfing the kitchen is a night sky messy with floating objects - keyboard, tricycle, dollhouse, umbrella, soccer ball, a teddy bear with his right arm extended, left paw positioned over his face as though in embarrassment or fear. A homey powder-blue kitchen is framed by three door-less thresholds on the left, right and center - each one representing passage into the house or the outside world, or a more metaphysical passage into the afterlife. With ordinary characters expounding on the preciousness of life, “Birthday Candles” aspires to convey eloquent whimsy - births, deaths, love, despair, whole constellations of human feelings and thoughts - but it’s Christine Jones’ wondrous set design that wordlessly manages the trick. All the while Ernestine’s lovesick friend Kenneth (Enrico Colantoni, adorable at any age) casually strolls in unannounced, carrying a torch for her for decades. Another and they have a teenage son, Billy (Christopher Livingston), and a daughter in college, Madeline (Flood, heartachingly tragic), and before Ernestine knows it Billy is ready to propose to his hopelessly neurotic girlfriend, Joan (a delightful Crystal Finn). With a chime her high school crush, Matt (John Earl Jelks), becomes her husband. (Messing beats the eggs, creams the butter and mixes the batter in real time, making this sugar-addicted critic wonder: Where are our slices?) As she bakes, the details of her life fill in around her: Family members and friends enter and exit, are born and die. With a fanciful offstage chime Ernestine instantly skips from one age to the next, though at an inconsistent clip - sometimes a year, sometimes a decade, but we’re always on her birthday, and she’s always baking her cake. Messing, center, as the teenage Ernestine and Susannah Flood as her Krulwich/The New York Times It’s her birthday, and her mother (Susannah Flood) is making golden butter cake it’s a tradition, one that Ernestine clings to for years, baking the same cake for herself over 90 birthdays, which we live through with her in the course of the 90-minute play. I am going to surprise God!” So declares the precocious 17-year-old Ernestine ( Debra Messing ) as the show opens. Instead, this Roundabout Theater Company production gets caught in a superficial cycle of wannabe profundities and emotional pantomimes. Noah Haidle’s “Birthday Candles,” which opened on Broadway Sunday night at the American Airlines Theater, tries to build poignancy and depth through moments that repeat like a record needle stuck in a groove. Or repetition can strip language until all that’s left are empty rhythms and sounds. Repetition can make magic happen: repeat a word or a phrase enough times and it breathes new life, fresh meaning. ![]() ![]() Matt (John Earl Jelks) and Ernestine (Debra Messing) in Noah Haidle’s “Birthday Candles.” With a fanciful offstage chime, Ernestine instantly skips from one age to the Krulwich/The New York Times ![]() Send any friend a storyĪs a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. ‘Birthday Candles’ Review: Another Year, Another Cake, Another Profundityĭebra Messing expounds on the preciousness of life in a production that aspires to convey eloquent whimsy, but too often feels methodically sentimental. ![]()
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