Stephen Adly Guirgis’ “Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven” is the funniest, saddest play of the year, with at least a dozen characters who go straight to your heart. This three-hour play, which had its world premiere Monday at Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company, features 18 actors under the direction of John Ortiz, and Guirgis wraps them all in a riveting, often rousing “Grand Hotel” framework.
Only it’s not a grand hotel or even a Motel 6. These characters live in a New York City women’s shelter on the verge of collapse, and only occasionally is their collective plight relieved by help from a priest (David Anzuelo) with a violent past and three social workers who are much less than perfect.