Is Leslye Headland’s new play “Cult of Love” a “holiday show” or rather a family comedy/drama that just happens to take place on Christmas and is receiving its New York premiere during the holiday season?
It is certainly not a standard holiday show – you know, a big, cheery, family-friendly, commercialized spectacle along the lines of the “Christmas Spectacular,” “The Nutcracker,” “A Christmas Carol” or Christmas musicals like “Elf” and “White Christmas” (all of which you can catch at the moment and can be quite enjoyable).
On the other hand, “Cult of Love” is a different kind of family show – in the sense that it depicts a family (including four struggling adult children, each with a spouse or friend, and their similarly troubled aging parents) in meltdown mode as they reunite for dinner on Christmas Eve at a farmhouse in Connecticut that is bursting with holiday decorations. They also frequently sing Christmas songs and play musical instruments – an all-out country jug band jamboree.
It makes sense that Headland would try to reexamine the holiday show and that the nonprofit Second Stage would be interested in producing her play. After all, holiday shows are a vital source of annual income for many theater companies. (It really makes you wonder why more playwrights don’t offer their own spin on the holidays.)
But more than that, the holiday show has become so standardized, homogenous and divorced from reality and the agonizing tensions of our current cultural and political moment that it practically cries out for reinvention and subversion, which here arrives in the form of realism.
On this particular Christmas, the Dahl family is in crisis, though some family members (including the parents, played by Mare Winningham and David Rasche) are reluctant to acknowledge this. Their children (as played by Rebecca Henderson, Zachary Quinto, Christopher Sears, and Shailene Woodley) are confronting issues such as mental illness, drug addiction, crisis of faith, and homophobia, leaving their partners (Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, and Christopher Lowell) struggling to help.
The most seemingly well-adjusted person is a cheery young girl (Barbie Ferreira) who pays a random visit.
This is an ensemble show where virtually every character gets a fair amount of attention. As directed by Trip Cullman, each actor provides a fine performance that touches upon both the comic edge and emotional fragility in the air.
“Cult of Love” can feel overstuffed, over-the-top, and unresolved and less accomplished than Headland’s earlier plays, including the excellent dark comedies “Bachelorette” and “Assistance.” But as directed by Trip Cullman, it is a perceptive reflection on the current holiday season, as people who feel overwhelmed in their lives come together with family members who have beliefs and points of view that they find deeply offensive and somehow manage to break bread, sing songs, and smile for photos despite the turmoil.
Happy holidays, indeed.
Hayes Theater, 240 W. 44th St., 2st.com. Through Feb. 2.
