Broadway review by Adam Feldman
Romantic comedies, once a Broadway staple, have lately been in short supply. To some extent, All In fills that vacuum. The show is not a comedy per se, but an anthology of comedy writing: short humor pieces by Simon Rich, performed script-in-hand by a rotating cast of actors. And while all of these pieces touch on awkward modern love in some way, that love is not always romantic; it can also be parental or familial or universal. But although the stories tend to resolve on awww-inspiring notes, All In is first and foremost funny—often very, very funny.
All In: Comedy About Love | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid
Director Alex Timbers gives All In the air of a live reading of The New Yorker, where much of Rich’s text first appeared: Set designer David Korins evokes a high-toned literary-bohemian atmosphere that is offset by Emily Flake’s adorable illustrations, projected on exposed brick. If you read The New Yorker regularly, you may remember some of the works collected here; Rich’s writing is memorably sharp and well-crafted. But their comic surprises are refreshed in performance. Three of the pieces delivered to wryly emphatic perfection, in the production’s opening cast, by the charming stand-up star John Mulaney: “Guy Walks Into a Bar,” which expands hilariously on a hoary joke about a half-deaf genie; “Learning the Ropes,” a tale of pirates on an unexpected adventure; and “The Big Nap,” in which a toddler affects the hardboiled style of a film-noir gumshoe.
All In: Comedy About Love | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid
Richard Kind is equally masterful as the central character in two other pieces: “Case Study,” in which he goes apoplectic as a 19th-century physician who suspects that his wife is having an affair with the Elephant Man; and “New Client,” an early-Woody-Allen-ish encounter between an elderly talent agent and the Grim Reaper. Fred Armisen gives a droll spin to Death and several other characters; Renée Elise Goldsberry rounds out the current cast in the female roles, including a baby femme fatale and (in the final and weakest segment) a future refugee from the planet Earth. For added variety, the Bengsons lead a five-piece band through four songs by the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt, whose wary take on love complements the embarrassment of Rich’s.
All In: Comedy About Love | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid
All In is set to run for 10 weeks only, and the cast members I saw will all be out by mid-January. Saturday Night Live’s Chloe Fineman replaces Goldsberry for two weeks starting January 2; Lin-Manuel Miranda anchors the second half of the run, which begins on January 14, joined Aidy Bryant and Nick Kroll (through Feb 2), Andrew Rannells (through Jan 26), Jimmy Fallon (Jan 28–Feb 2), Annaleigh Ashford and Tim Meadows (Feb 4–16), David Cross (February 4–9) and Hank Azaria (February 11–16). I’m happy I saw whom I saw, but I have every confidence that these other gifted performers will make their own marks on the material, which gives them a lot to work with. All In may not be a full dramatic meal, but it’s a tasty treat for the run-up to Valentine’s Day, sweet and tart as a candy heart.
All In: Comedy About Love. Hudson Theater (Broadway). By Simon Rich. Music and lyrics by Stephin Merritt. Directed by Alex Timbers. With John Mulaney, Richard Kind, Fred Armisen, Renée Elise Goldsberry. Running time: 1hr 35mins. No intermission.
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All In: Comedy About Love | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid
