Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, the 1983 two-hander from the dramatist John Patrick Shanley, is an odd choice for an off-Broadway revival in 2023. A short and bruising portrait of a doomed working-class romance in the Bronx, a kitchen-sink drama with wild emotional swings and ample domestic violence, it’s out of style with talky, cerebral or sociopolitically provocative contemporary theater. By the producers’ own admission, its abrasive, off-putting nature is part of the allure – “I want to be witnessing something I shouldn’t be witnessing,” Christopher Abbott, the play’s star and co-producer (along with the actor Sam Rockwell’s production company), told Vulture ahead of the show’s opening on Monday.
Indeed, as a first-time viewer of the play, I can confirm: by the end of this wearisome 80-minute show, directed by Jeff Ward, I did not want to be witnessing it, partly owing to a pair of overcooked performances and largely to the work’s shouty, alienating melodrama. As is often the case, the hook for this revival (its second, the other being in 2004) is star power: Abbott, arguably still most famous for his time on HBO’s Girls, shares the stage with his Black Bear co-star Aubrey Plaza, most recently of The White Lotus and long beloved from Parks and Recreation.
