Another excellent evening in the Oldcastle Theatre in Bennington. A uniformly fine and balanced cast riveted my attention in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound. The cast expressed the shape of this play with uncanny skill. I can imagine it seeming long, but not with these wonderful players. The finest moment for me was a long narrative from mother Kate, played by Sarah Corey, relating, really recreating, her own story. This amounted basically to a 20 minute monologue, and it turned the theatre into a silence in every seat. Anthony Ingargiola, as Eugene, was the willing listener. Everything this young actor did was natural, when he was talking to us, as well as to his fellows on stage. Amy Gaither Hayes as Blanche made her short appearance into a major display of kindness and generosity, her purpose clear, her speaking musical. As the father Jack, Jason Asprey had an inner darkness of being that extended beyond his affair with another woman. It came across to me as an intense loneliness, with his voice sometimes close to a whisper. Excellent!
This company deserves, and will achieve a bright future. The audience I was part of was with the actors every step of the way,
