Longacre Theatre
New York
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Call it “Broadway for the underserved straight-male constituency,” said Charles Isherwood in The New York Times. Like last year’s stage portrait of football’s Vince Lombardi, this celebrity sports drama from the same writer and director seems to exist so that heterosexual men have “something to drag wives and girlfriends to in exchange for attendance at, say, Wicked.” Unfortunately, neither committed hoops fans nor their dates “are likely to learn anything revelatory” from this account of an on-court rivalry–turned–bromance that transformed NBA basketball in the 1980s. This “workman-like” dual portrait of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson is never as engaging as both players were when they held the spotlight themselves.
The show’s “smart use” of old game footage helps a bit, said David Rooney in The Hollywood Reporter. It’s also a nice touch that the six members of the cast trot out in warm-up suits for an arena-style pre-tip-off introduction. But as years flash by, with Bird’s Celtics and Johnson’s Lakers exchanging championships before the stars finally join forces to lead a U.S. Olympic team, listening to the actors talk about the excitement of a game “is no match for experiencing it.” Making matters worse, Tug Coker is forced to play the young Larry Bird as the “laconic, intensely private Midwesterner” he was. Kevin Daniels brings ample energy to his turn as the charismatic Johnson, but this simply isn’t a very theater-friendly story.
Only because the show tells the wrong story, said Don Aucoin in The Boston Globe. Bird and Johnson both approved Eric Simonson’s script, and it “gives off a strong whiff of authorized biography,” leaving “a lot of rich dramatic material” from their lives on the sideline. Of course, the subject of Johnson’s HIV diagnosis comes up—how could it not? But there’s little mention of how he got the disease, and absolutely none of Bird’s father’s suicide. Dramas can be found in the lives of our sports heroes, but only by artists “willing to probe beneath the myths.”
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