One of the funniest scenes on Broadway right now is not spoken, sung or danced. It is written. You have to read it on the back stage wall, and it is absolutely hilarious as well as scary. The scene appears in Jonathan Spector’s “Eureka Day,” which opened Monday at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre after a run in London. One can only imagine how the British laughed at these politically correct American vegan characters who try with all due sincerity to negotiate their way semantically around raising, teaching and taking care of kids in the world’s most liberal bastion: Berkeley, California.
The writing on the backstage wall comes when an executive committee of concerned parents tries to address an outbreak of mumps at a private school. Anna D. Shapiro’s direction can best be described as littering the stage with egg shells and daring her five actors not to crack any of them. The school library where the committee meets has all the revered icons on display, and from the looks of Todd Rosenthal’s scenic design, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Toni Morrison will descend from the shelves at any minute to swat away all illiberal comments.
The extremely mild-mannered Don leads the group, and as played in several shades of gray by Bill Irwin, he can’t get through a sentence without changing his mind at least twice. Suzanne is another veteran of the group, and Jessica Hecht’s delivery is to pour lukewarm oatmeal over every slightly controversial opinion being expressed by fellow members Eli (Thomas Middleditch) and Meiko (Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz). Carina is the group’s new member, and Amber Gray plays this initiate by being slightly bemused at all the attempts to keep things diversified, equitable and inclusive. Eventually, Carina and Suzanne find room not only to disagree but verbally pummel the hell out of each other over vaccine efficacy.
Long before that showdown explodes, Don has called the committee together for an emergency meeting about the mumps outbreak. The declaration from public health officials is absolutely clear on what to do. The five committee members are anything but, and so Don sets up a Zoom call to address the parents directly.
Downstage center, Don faces the audience to stare and talk into a laptop. This Broadway season, the only less theatrical set up is Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher’s characters falling in love via email in “Left on Tenth.” In “Eureka Day,” Shapiro’s actors and Spector’s written words turn the situation into one of the must-see scenes of 2024. The fun starts as soon as the parents at the Eureka Day School begin to respond to what Don is trying to tell them. On the back wall of the library, David Bengali’s projection design gives us the parents’ texts messages, complete with head shots of people, pets and cartoon characters.
Thirty seconds into these text messages I stopped listening to what was being said on stage. Indeed, Spector gives the actors lines, they never stop talking, sometimes all at once, but it is the written and silent text messages that completely dominate. What becomes clear very soon is that the text comments are filled with crap no parent would utter face to face to his or her worst enemy. The brazenness and, ultimately, the cruelty are shockingly funny — shocking because those texts are so typical and commonplace nowadays.
It’s a great scene, and Spector matches it with a monologue that comes late in the play. Here, the playwright has the enormous help of Hecht, who delivers one of this year’s most riveting performances. It takes place when Suzanne and Carina have their showdown. Whatever your views on childhood vaccines may be, Hecht forces you to reconsider those ideas right or wrong.
