Theater review by Raven Snook
Excruciatingly sincere, Dewey Moss’s melodrama about intolerance is all bleeding heart. That leaves no room for anything else in The Crusade of Connor Stephens, an overwrought tale of two gay Texas men whose lives are shattered by an act of gun violence sparked by hateful religious rhetoric. Moss, whose direction is as unsubtle as his writing, is from the Lone Star State himself, so perhaps this material is personal to him. But in midtown Manhattan, it feels like preaching to the choir, and the sermon is rarely inspiring.
As Jim Jr. (Ben Curtis) and his partner, Bobby (Alec Shaw), prepare to bury their young child, we meet their extended families, who are clichés, one and all—especially the I’m-so-old-I-tell-it-like-it-is grandma (Kathleen Huber) and Big Jim (soap opera alum James Kiberd), a fire-and-brimstone Baptist minister who abhors his son’s “sin” of homosexuality. Although the actors strive valiantly to enliven the lugubrious material, predictable ideological and emotional conflicts ensue, not to mention awkward exposition and unsurprising revelations. There’s some question, too, about the motives of the shooter, who died at the scene. But the only mystery you’ll want to unravel is how this well-meaning clunker made it Off Broadway.
The Theater Center (Off Broadway). By Dewey Moss. Directed by Moss. With ensemble cast. Running tiome: 2hrs. One intermission. Through Sept 30.
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