A Political Newbie Goes Rogue in Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt at Shakespeare Theatre Company
Babbitt
Shakespeare Theatre Company
Jordan Wright
October 8, 2024
Special to The Zebra
Matthew Broderick (Photo/Teresa Castracane Photography)
There’s no law that says you must read or re-read the novel the play you are about to see is based on. I offer that up to all theatregoers because you may often hear the challenge, “Did you read it?” or the boast, “I just reread it knowing I was going to see the play.” None of that matters when most plays have been totally reimagined by the director as is often the case in new productions. And that goes for Shakespeare as we shall see later this week in my next review of one of his classics.
Reimagining a well-known play is what keeps it alive proving its relevance to our modern culture. Great playwrights anchored their works on the social constructs that have been with us since the Greeks first took note of our human foibles. In other words, we’re still stumbling around in the dark ruining people’s lives, climbing the ladder to success and falling in love – sometimes easily, sometimes with grave consequences. The only constant when a play is modernized, is its relevancy to today’s culture. And that’s what Dramaturg Joe DiPietro has given us in his adaption of the classic Sinclair Lewis novel, Babbitt. Lewis was so universally respected for his social commentary novels he was the first American to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Judy Kaye, Chris Myers, Matthew Broderick, Mara Davi, and Matt McGrath (Photo/Teresa Castracane Photography)
George F. Babbitt is a familiar character as the uber-suburban, middle America, 1950’s working man with a stay-at-home wife and two kids. He’s a successful real estate broker – a salesman who probably read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People – the bestselling guide to public speaking and closing deals. George is a brand names’ fanatic who worships his two-slice toaster. It fits in the era of TV pitchmen and catchy jingles that with the emergence of television reaches a broader audience than had ever been possible in the past.
The parallels to a certain recent president become readily noticeable when Babbitt is approached by a “concerned citizens” group to run for office on their conservative platform. It’s then his high school speaking accomplishments really shine. He becomes that brand of messianic candidate spouting incendiary tropes about immigrants, Socialists and Liberals. They dub him the “Prophet of Zenith”, the eminently insignificant midwestern town where he resides. Blindly following the group’s instructions, Babbitt loses all sense of self and empathy as well as his best friend, Paul. Eventually, he finds his muse, Tanis, a ballroom dancer, and falls in with her clique of liberal Bohemians only to become disenchanted yet again veering back to staunch Conservativism. These days we have a very familiar coinage for that whichever-way-the-wind-blows political stance. We call it a “flip-flopper”. I think Lewis would like that.
The cast of Babbitt at Shakespeare Theatre Company. (Photo/Teresa Castracane Photography)
Lewis’s well-drawn characters – Conservatives, Liberals, Feminists, Bohemians, an autocratic School Board member, Babbitt’s long-suffering wife, Myra, his dutiful daughter, Tinka, and rebellious son, Ted, his lover, Tanis, and the Good Citizen’s League – all with their own particular ideologies – steer him down widely divergent paths until George reconnects with his inner empath, then unceremoniously chucking this newly-embraced persona like yesterday’s trash.
Two-time Tony award-winning actor and legendary film star, Matthew Broderick, offers up a hilariously confounded Babbitt in a performance reminiscent of his portrayal of Leo Bloom in the film, “The Producers” which he co-starred in with Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock. Yes, there’s schtick, bumbling buckets of it, a role in which Broderick succeeds as the universal comic mensch. In Babbitt, as serious-minded and relevant as the subject matter is, it is decidedly richer with its deliciously tongue-in-cheek, often goofball, humor.
Mara Davi and Matthew Broderick (Photo/Teresa Castracane Photography)
This story of our two Americas, described by Lewis as “a unity of opposites”, defines the corrosiveness of the political spectrum on both sides. How Babbitt navigates the shifting sands of politics while futilely searching for his own identity, cements the play’s relevance to today’s confounding American political landscape.
Director Christopher Ashley stages this new play with a seasoned hand. His work on Broadway’s Tony Award-winning play Memphis as well as his august collection of a Drama Desk Award, yet another Tony and three Outer Critics Circle Awards gleaned from dozens of major Broadway shows, has earned him theatre royalty status.
Judy Kaye and Matt McGrath (Photo/Teresa Castracane Photography)
A fine ensemble, who are not listed by character but as Storyteller #1 through #7, round out this expert cast. With Ann Harda as Storyteller #1; Nehal Joshi as Storyteller #2; Matt McGrath as Storyteller #3; Ali Stroker as Storyteller #4; Mara Devi as Storyteller #5 and Dance Captain; Judy Kaye as Storyteller #6; and Chris Myers as Storyteller #7.
Scenic Design by Walt Spangler; Costume Design by Linda Cho; Lighting Design by Cha See; Sound Design by Leon Rothenberg; Original Music by Mark Bennett & Wayne Barker; Choreography by Stephen Buescher.
Through November 3rd at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Sidney Harmon Hall, 610 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 547-1122 or visit www.ShakespeareTheatre.org.