Susan Granger’s review of “The Minutes” (Studio 54 on Broadway)
It’s a dark and stormy night in the small Midwestern town of Big Cherry when the weekly City Council meeting is called to order in Tracy Letts’ compelling, thought-provoking new play.
Having missed the previous meeting because of his mother’s death, the Council’s newest member, Mr. Peel (Noah Reed, best known for “Schitt’s Creek”), is curious why another member was unceremoniously removed.
No one will discuss the matter with him although several other topics are open to bantering, bickering and backstabbing – like building a handicapped-accessible fountain in the town square, the proper disposal of dozens of confiscated bicycles, and the proposal of a ‘Lincoln Smackdown’ in which a martial-artist dressed as Honest Abe would fight challengers in a steel-cage match.
“Democracy’s messy,” intones the avuncular Mayor Superba (playwright Tracy Letts).
Then, suddenly, somewhat inexplicably, several Council members, including the Mayor, stoic Clerk (Jessie Mueller) and quirky, scene-stealing Council veterans (Austin Pendleton & Blair Brown), spontaneously perform an absurdist re-enactment of the 1872 Battle at Mackie Creek at which, according to local legend, settlers battled bloodthirsty Sioux Indians.
Although this episode bears a remarkable resemblance to the 1956 Western “The Searchers,” perhaps Big Cherry got the mythology of that tarnished ’origin story’ wrong – at least according to the daughter of Native American survivor who was interviewed by the recently banished Council member, Mr. Carp (Ian Barford), a potential whistleblower.
Given the impeccable ensemble casting and astute direction of Steppenwolf’s Anna D. Shapiro, this subversive, slyly satirical exploration of small-town bureaucracy slowly but surely explodes into somewhat surreal historical revisionism and collective guilt.
Best known for his Tony & Pulitzer Prize-winning “August: Osage County,” actor/playwright Tracy Letts’ anarchic, 90-minute allegory is inventive and incisive, skewering the Council’s self-serving incompetence and corruption, epitomized by the burying of antiquity in a manner not dissimilar to recent ‘critical race theory’ events in Texas and Florida – although this play debuted in Chicago back in 2017.
David Zinn’s detail-perfect set recreates mundane municipal chambers throughout the country and the sanctimonious mood is amplified with familiar patriotic marches and punctuated by Brian MacDevitt’s effective lighting.
“The Minutes” has a limited engagement at Studio 54 – 254 W. 54th St. – through July 10.