Skintight
Written by Joshua Harmon
Directed by Daniel Aukin
Featuring Will Brittain, Eli Gelb, Harry Groener, Kimberly Jürgen, Idina Menzel & Jeff Skowron
Hanging on by a thread after her ex-husband gets engaged to a much younger woman, Jodi (Tony Award winner Idina Menzel, Rent, Wicked) retreats to her dad’s swanky Manhattan townhouse. But rather than the comforts of home, she instead finds her aging father’s new live-in boyfriend, Trey—who is 20. In his new comedy, Joshua Harmon (Bad Jews, Significant Other) brings neurotic family drama to the forefront as father and daughter contend with the age-old questions of how to age gracefully in a world obsessed with youth and where love fits into it all.
"Skintight" has often been promoted as a star vehicle for Idina Menzel, but the roles of three other actors - Harry Groener, Will Brittain and Eli Gelb -- are just as important as Menzel's. All are superb, as is LA's celebrated musical chameleon Jeff Skowron in a relatively minor non-musical role.
Joshua Harmon's ode to a dysfunctional Jewish family, who reunite for the father's 70th birthday. Harry Groener is sensational as the father who has turned gay and so is Idina Menzel as the skrewed up daughter bent on destroying her father's happiness as well as her own and that of her son. Spectacular cast and superior writing.
While walking a narrow tightrope, there are several elements that distinguishes this play from a daytime “soap” beginning with a well-written script. Add to that, sharp direction of a talented, professional cast, and a limited run vs. a serial, which is open ended. Also, there is a deeper level to this play in that it explores some elements of society’s fascination or even obsession with youth, relegating women, especially, to becoming invisible after a certain age.
Beauty is an important commodity, and Skintight, a play by Joshua Harmon currently in its west coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, is a biting and astute look at age, appearance, and how they affect our relationship with the world. Overall, Skintight is an entertaining look at complicated people, with ideas that go beyond skin deep.
Tony Award-winning actress Idina Menzel is wickedly good in Joshua Harmon’s newest play SKINTIGHT at the Geffen Playhouse. I sat frozen in my seat watching her magically change for the better, as Jodi, a neurotic Jewish mother, and daughter of successful fashion designer Elliot (Harry Groener).
Jodi arrives in Elliot’s modern two-story New York townhome after a red-eye flight to surprise her father on his 70th birthday. Lauren Helpern’s set oozes high-end luxury in gray hues, rich wood paneling, and a contemporary stairway.
As a divorced, empty nester mother with two adult boys, Jodi is “holding on by a thin thread.” Feeling jilted that her ex-husband is about to marry a “skintight” 24-year-old Soul Cycle “spinner” who takes classes to maintain her tiny waist and large breasts.
Harmon has written some very unlikable characters and given them some really offensive words to spew, but in this latest play he has actually written more back and forth dialogue instead of straight-on monologues. Under the tight direction of Daniel Aukin the sextet of actors pointedly deliver each barbed line and are skintight in their characterizations. There are plenty of laughs to go along with the vitriol.
Skintight is such a remarkably specific play, it likely won’t speak to many people. But for those who see themselves and their loved ones in the characters on stage, it’s an engaging and amazing night at the theater.
Joshua Harmon’s achingly insightful, scathingly bitter, hilariously funny contemporary comedy offers Idina Menzel in her celebrated non-singing performance, bringing along director Daniel Aukin and two of her original Roundabout costars. Harry Groener, a true LA theatrical treasure in the classiest of ways, is a perfect foil for Menzel’s frantic shrillness as her patient stuffedshirt of a father whose wish to be alone and family-free on his birthday is understandable—especially considering his family.
Overall, it’s a bit of a challenge to fully love anyone in this play but it is incredibly easy to laugh along with them and that laughter eventually helps the character work their way under your skin, leaving you with a lot to think about.In the end, that’s exactly what we hope for when we go to the theatre and the cast should be commended for that beautiful accomplishment.
This focus will definitely resonate with California audiences of any age. Inside jokes and innuendos relating to the fashion design industry, as well as the lives, loves, and travails of the rich and famous add a humorous touch to the overall story. It’s no surprise that this show has been extended due to sold out shows. For a chance to increase your laugh lines, treat yourself to a performance of “Skintight".
The play has no plot as such, but still offers an interesting insight into its characters performed by a cast of outstanding actors. - Highly Recommended
Humor is what makes this play work. Menzel and Gelb were in the original New York production; their experience and expertise jump out at you, dazzle you. They get laughs from just about every line they utter; the same goes for Brittain, who breaks the audience up in a scene in which he struts around the stage clad in nothing but a jockstrap.
The splendid acting and Harmon’s deft way with comedy keep Skintight from being dismissed as trivial.
Director Daniel Aukin has an idiosyncratic, bold approach to pacing — he is unafraid to whiz through sections where others might pregnantly pause or to slow things down unexpectedly. Lauren Helpern’s scenic design is spare yet opulent — just perfect.
Harmon’s script is incredibly authentic. He writes from a base of realism. His writing is solid – yet fluid, hilarious, and engaging.
Aukin’s direction couldn’t be better. It’s crisp and has forward movement. It moves the story along at just the right pace. It’s on point, emotional and rings of genuineness. There isn’t a wasted move in the show.
As laugh-and-star-power-packed a West Coast Premiere as any comedy lover could wish for, Skintight makes it three winners in a row for Joshua Harmon and the Geffen.
In Skintight, Harmon brings neurotic family drama to the forefront as father and daughter contend with the age-old questions of how to age gracefully in a world obsessed with youth … and where love fits into it all.
There’s a commercial appeal to the writing, a crowd-pleasing directness that would benefit from a tighter structure.
It’s not that “Skintight” is superficial. The place of beauty in our lives is a profound subject, and Harmon offers a complex understanding that respects the hazardous yet life-enhancing power of physical pulchritude.
Elliot, like Blanche DuBois, knows that the opposite of death is desire, and that skin-deep can cut to the marrow of our being. But more alluring than the play’s truth is the harmoniousness of the ensemble, led by a majestic musical theater star who, it turns out, can transform a comic monologue into a power ballad of luminous neuroticism.
"Skintight" has often been promoted as a star vehicle for Idina Menzel, but the roles of three other actors - Harry Groener, Will Brittain and Eli Gelb -- are just as important as Menzel's. All are superb, as is LA's celebrated musical chameleon Jeff Skowron in a relatively minor non-musical role.
Joshua Harmon's ode to a dysfunctional Jewish family, who reunite for the father's 70th birthday. Harry Groener is sensational as the father who has turned gay and so is Idina Menzel as the skrewed up daughter bent on destroying her father's happiness as well as her own and that of her son. Spectacular cast and superior writing.
While walking a narrow tightrope, there are several elements that distinguishes this play from a daytime “soap” beginning with a well-written script. Add to that, sharp direction of a talented, professional cast, and a limited run vs. a serial, which is open ended. Also, there is a deeper level to this play in that it explores some elements of society’s fascination or even obsession with youth, relegating women, especially, to becoming invisible after a certain age.
Beauty is an important commodity, and Skintight, a play by Joshua Harmon currently in its west coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, is a biting and astute look at age, appearance, and how they affect our relationship with the world. Overall, Skintight is an entertaining look at complicated people, with ideas that go beyond skin deep.
Tony Award-winning actress Idina Menzel is wickedly good in Joshua Harmon’s newest play SKINTIGHT at the Geffen Playhouse. I sat frozen in my seat watching her magically change for the better, as Jodi, a neurotic Jewish mother, and daughter of successful fashion designer Elliot (Harry Groener).
Jodi arrives in Elliot’s modern two-story New York townhome after a red-eye flight to surprise her father on his 70th birthday. Lauren Helpern’s set oozes high-end luxury in gray hues, rich wood paneling, and a contemporary stairway.
As a divorced, empty nester mother with two adult boys, Jodi is “holding on by a thin thread.” Feeling jilted that her ex-husband is about to marry a “skintight” 24-year-old Soul Cycle “spinner” who takes classes to maintain her tiny waist and large breasts.
Harmon has written some very unlikable characters and given them some really offensive words to spew, but in this latest play he has actually written more back and forth dialogue instead of straight-on monologues. Under the tight direction of Daniel Aukin the sextet of actors pointedly deliver each barbed line and are skintight in their characterizations. There are plenty of laughs to go along with the vitriol.
Skintight is such a remarkably specific play, it likely won’t speak to many people. But for those who see themselves and their loved ones in the characters on stage, it’s an engaging and amazing night at the theater.
Joshua Harmon’s achingly insightful, scathingly bitter, hilariously funny contemporary comedy offers Idina Menzel in her celebrated non-singing performance, bringing along director Daniel Aukin and two of her original Roundabout costars. Harry Groener, a true LA theatrical treasure in the classiest of ways, is a perfect foil for Menzel’s frantic shrillness as her patient stuffedshirt of a father whose wish to be alone and family-free on his birthday is understandable—especially considering his family.
Overall, it’s a bit of a challenge to fully love anyone in this play but it is incredibly easy to laugh along with them and that laughter eventually helps the character work their way under your skin, leaving you with a lot to think about.In the end, that’s exactly what we hope for when we go to the theatre and the cast should be commended for that beautiful accomplishment.
This focus will definitely resonate with California audiences of any age. Inside jokes and innuendos relating to the fashion design industry, as well as the lives, loves, and travails of the rich and famous add a humorous touch to the overall story. It’s no surprise that this show has been extended due to sold out shows. For a chance to increase your laugh lines, treat yourself to a performance of “Skintight".
The play has no plot as such, but still offers an interesting insight into its characters performed by a cast of outstanding actors. - Highly Recommended
Humor is what makes this play work. Menzel and Gelb were in the original New York production; their experience and expertise jump out at you, dazzle you. They get laughs from just about every line they utter; the same goes for Brittain, who breaks the audience up in a scene in which he struts around the stage clad in nothing but a jockstrap.
The splendid acting and Harmon’s deft way with comedy keep Skintight from being dismissed as trivial.
Director Daniel Aukin has an idiosyncratic, bold approach to pacing — he is unafraid to whiz through sections where others might pregnantly pause or to slow things down unexpectedly. Lauren Helpern’s scenic design is spare yet opulent — just perfect.
Harmon’s script is incredibly authentic. He writes from a base of realism. His writing is solid – yet fluid, hilarious, and engaging.
Aukin’s direction couldn’t be better. It’s crisp and has forward movement. It moves the story along at just the right pace. It’s on point, emotional and rings of genuineness. There isn’t a wasted move in the show.
As laugh-and-star-power-packed a West Coast Premiere as any comedy lover could wish for, Skintight makes it three winners in a row for Joshua Harmon and the Geffen.
In Skintight, Harmon brings neurotic family drama to the forefront as father and daughter contend with the age-old questions of how to age gracefully in a world obsessed with youth … and where love fits into it all.
There’s a commercial appeal to the writing, a crowd-pleasing directness that would benefit from a tighter structure.
It’s not that “Skintight” is superficial. The place of beauty in our lives is a profound subject, and Harmon offers a complex understanding that respects the hazardous yet life-enhancing power of physical pulchritude.
Elliot, like Blanche DuBois, knows that the opposite of death is desire, and that skin-deep can cut to the marrow of our being. But more alluring than the play’s truth is the harmoniousness of the ensemble, led by a majestic musical theater star who, it turns out, can transform a comic monologue into a power ballad of luminous neuroticism.
