The Motherf**ker with the Hat

Photo credit: Michael Brosilow 
by Stephen Adly Guirgis
at Steppenwolf

Jimmy Smits. I never watched L.A. Law. I remember the promos for the show, with him hovering in the background of the group shot - my cheap TV giving his skin color a strange, yellow tint.

It turns out, though, that it is possible that as an actor Smits was custom-built to play the role of Ralph D. in The Motherf**er with the Hat.

Interestingly, having seem so many Hollywood actors on stage - people are different on camera than they are in real life. Unexpected actors are captivating on stage, but blend on camera and vice versa. Examples of some actors who blend on stage, but not on camera would be David Schwimmer and Mark Ruffalo. Actors who blend on camera, but who are entirely captivating on stage might include John Goodman, Bradley Whitford and I would now add to that Jimmy Smits.

Well, actually Jimmy Smits doesn't stand a chance of blending on stage or on the street, to be fair. He is enormously tall. This is the reason he was eerily hovering in the background of those promos for L.A. Law. He might compete with Brad Garrett for height, who played Robert on Everybody Loves Raymond. On a magnificent and remarkable set, he made the furniture seem like it belonged in a dollhouse in every scene he played. It was especially noticeable on the couch in Ralph D.'s house when early on it looked like a chair for one, and yet later on accommodated two of the other actors with room to spare.

But, in this story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy might get girl back (maybe) - it was the seasoned, secondary actors who stole the show.

In terms of the actual show, I thought it was a play with promise. But, not a heavy hitter. It did not have much to offer to a dialogue about, well, anything. In fact, to be more refined about what the play was about - it was all about dialogue and not terribly much about anything. In the after-discussion we spent nearly the entire time talking about language and the dialogue and the poetry of the words and how they were used. The story hit on themes of addiction, multiculturalism, isolation, intimacy, commitment and health - but, you could not say the play was about any of these things in great depth. There were no solutions or recommendations, just thoughts.

My theater partner really liked the play and I find this useful. In terms of the actual play, I did not think it was as strong an offering as, say, Good People.

In terms of moments in the play, I think there will be a couple that stick with me, one poignant example sort of leaps to mind. Part of the stage was on a turntable. And, in the midst of switching scenes they moved through the cousin's apartment where he is quietly sitting at his dining room table drinking in isolation, in contrast to the other characters who are more obviously paired. He leads a rich, quiet, lonely sweet life. He is honest, possibly dishonest about his sexuality, but married to a woman who has left him lonely. The other characters are also dishonest in ways that leave them lonely. Maybe that is what the play is about. Honest/dishonesty - intimacy/loneliness.

The works well in the current season's theme "the reckoning." And, I think it was a useful addition to the season this year, if only to see Smits knock one out of the park.