It’s bittersweet that Richard Greenberg isn’t around to see the world premiere of his adaptation of Holiday at the Goodman Theatre. The late gay playwright, famed for such Broadway hits like Take Me Out and Three Days of Rain, died of cancer last year long before his commissioned updating of the original 1928 play by Philip Barry (The Philadelphia Story) could get up on its feet with actors in the rehearsal room.
No doubt that Greenberg would have fine-tuned his Holiday script to even more urbane perfection in front of preview audiences. But this posthumous premiere is in marvelous hands with former Goodman artistic director Robert Falls, and he ensures that Holiday sparkles anew with relevance for a modern generation.
I admit I was apprehensive when the Goodman announced Holiday as part of its 100th anniversary season. Reading Barry’s original script felt very creaky, and it hasn’t been revived on Broadway since 1995, when its stars were Tony Goldwyn and Laura Linney.
And though watching the 1938 Hollywood film adaptation of Holiday starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn was enjoyable, it felt somewhat awkward since the play was re-jiggered to be more mass-appeal friendly in the vein of a screwball comedy.
But Greenberg’s smart contemporary retrofitting of Holiday certainly justifies the effort. Greenberg captures all of the involving romantic plot points of Barry’s original, while also adding enough razor-sharp comic and dramatic observations to critically examine the mores of today’s ultra-wealthy.
Barry’s Holiday debuted not long before New York’s 1929 stock market crash, and Greenberg’s Holiday is also on a crisis precipice since it starts in December 2019. Though no mention is made of the impending global COVID-19 pandemic, audiences can still add a sense of foreboding to the action.
Holiday initially focuses on the whirlwind romance between a “by-the-bootstraps” corporate lawyer named Johnny Case (Luigi Sottile) who is surprised to find out that his impetuous engagement to Julia Seton (Molly Griggs) means that he may be marrying into a 1% old-money New York family. Johnny and Julia want to speedily wed by Jan. 10, 2020, but complications ensue when he meets the members of her family.
Julia’s Brooklyn-based older sister, Linda (Bryce Gangel), and younger alcoholic gay brother, Ned (Wesley Taylor), take an immediate liking to Johnny. Ned even has a humorous drug-based anecdote about a chance meeting he had with Johnny back when they both attended Yale University.
But the siblings’ father, Edward (Jordan Lage), is understandably more skeptical as he wants to thoroughly vet Johnny before he marries off “his favorite” child.
There’s also a drastic contrast in the company that the Setons keep. The haughty cousins Seton Cram (Eric Hellman) and his wife, Laura (Alejandra Escalante) are only concerned with wealth and status (you have an idea of who they voted for in 2016 with their line about vacationing in Palm Beach, Florida).
By contrast, Johnny and Linda have mutual friends in the wealthy and grounded lesbian couple of Nikka Washburn (Christiana Clark) and Susan Feld (Jessie Fisher). They do loads of hands-on philanthropy off of the millions inherited due to the beneficial medical device patents invented by Feld’s family.
Greenberg also trims down the original Holiday cast size by rolling all of the Seton mansion servants down to their talented personal chef named Walter (Rammel Chan). He’s holding out hope that Edward Seton will financially back his dreams of opening a high-end New York restaurant.
And though Greenberg sticks to Barry’s original three-act structure for Holiday, it all breezily and entertainingly passes by without feeling tiring in any way. It also helps that director Falls eliminated the second intermission in favor of a brief pause for Walt Spangler’s two lavish mansion room sets to change back and forth.
Falls also directs a top-notch cast that is extremely erudite in delivering Greenberg’s elevated and educated dialogue. The cast is also no slouch in delving into the depressing depths of their characters.
Wesley Taylor is particularly lovable and heartbreaking as Ned. Taylor’s sassy dialogue delivery is a cover for his debilitating addictions.
Bryce Gangel as Linda Seton is also a marvel, especially as her character dwells on being both trapped by her family’s wealth while also bemoaning her late mother’s unhappy marriage. Gangel’s Linda is also ideally matched with Sottile’s Johnny as they both start to realize that their characters’ life goals are more in alignment than the names set to be printed on the rushed engagement announcements.
Holiday at the Goodman also impresses with its professional production design that includes Kaye Voyce’s contemporary costumes and Richard Woodbury’s sound design with original music to aurally expand the vast opulence of the Seton mansion. Amith Chandrashaker’s lighting design is also effective in being both chilly and warm between Spangler’s two gorgeous mansion rooms.
Some audiences might question whether the focus on “poor little rich girls (and boys)” in Holiday to be appropriate right now. But in light of recent billionaires’ damaging societal actions in government and the press, Greenberg’s updated questioning of the positive roles for those with extreme wealth and power in Holiday certainly gives Barry’s original play an added relevancy for today.
Richard Greenberg’s updated adaptation of Philip Barry’s Holiday continues through March 1 at the Goodman Theatre, 120 N. Dearborn St. Tickets are $34-$104, through demand may trigger dynamic pricing. Call 312-443-3800 or visit GoodmanTheatre.org/Holiday.