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[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff & Richie, the podcast where we explore the latest shows we see, sharing our insights and opinions on the performances, storylines, and everything in between. In today's episode, we're discussing the Broadway production of Becky Shaw playing at the Hayes Theater. Whether you cannot catch the show in person or you want to expand your thoughts after seeing it, this episode is for you. And as always, we want to inform you that this episode will contain spoilers. So if you're ready to dive into this production, stick around with us. I'm Jeff.

[0:27] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie, and we're thrilled to be your hosts for this episode. But before we start the conversation about Becky Shaw, here are a few words from our advertisers.

[0:33] Jeff Malone: Welcome, everyone, to a new episode of Half Hour with Jeff & Richie. Today we're discussing Becky Shaw. A blind date spirals spectacularly off the rails in Becky Shaw, the razor-sharp dark comedy from two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Gina Gionfriddo. When it made its New York premiere off-Broadway at Second Stage Theater, Becky Shaw left critics and audiences reeling, and the New York Times called it ferociously funny, a tangled tale of love, sex, and ethics. Now this hilarious hit play is back, and it's making its Broadway debut.

[1:01] Richie Grasso: All right. So let's kick things off with our overall thoughts on the story, plot, and concept here. Where do you want to begin on this?

[1:06] Jeff Malone: Well, this has a track record off-Broadway. I will say when I first saw this announced for Broadway, I kind of thought to myself, okay, sure. Like, I originally thought, why? I was like, is there a reason? And I didn't know the plot at all, and I just feel like even leaving the play, I still ask myself why? Because I liked it, but I didn't love it. And I know it got good reviews, and I know it's doing well, but there's something about seeing this season so stacked with, again, I've said this many times in this podcast, the dark drama is dark, and the ferociously funny, as the New York Times calls this, the extreme comedy is extreme. And I find that because Becky Shaw is a dark comedy, and falls right in the middle of those two, I unfortunately find it as this kind of like, choose a side, because the industry has kind of led to that this season in particular.

And when you have the wildly, wildly off-the-charts Oh Mary, and then the seriously dark Fear of 13 and Death of a Salesman, I look at this and I say, okay, of course there's a spectrum to comedy, there's a spectrum to dark drama. To me, I looked at this and I say, why am I supposed to care about this plot? And I thought that learning the different plot moments and the character development, oh my gosh, isn't this interesting how people can act this way with other people? I thought it got my gears moving in my brain, and I thought the concept of it all worked well, kind of telling the story and leaving things in suspense and figuring it out, but I just couldn't help leaving there feeling like, okay, what was I supposed to learn from this, feel from this?

Or maybe there's the, you don't have to learn something from this or feel from this, it's just a story. And so I would love to know her thoughts on why she wrote this, is this based on any true elements of life? Because to me, it just sits right in the middle of where comedy is right now or could be, or just plays in general. So that's kind of my off the cuff thoughts. I don't know if you agree with all that or not.

[3:12] Richie Grasso: I think it's a great take. Why not? I mean, I think it's a big conversation starter for me because I look at this and I say, this is a play that is strictly around comedy and discomfort. And I think when I'm watching something like this, it's one of those plays where you're laughing at the comedy that's happening, but you're also so far deep in discomfort that you're saying, wow, I really can't believe that some of these things are actually written in this play. But it then kind of makes me go, whoa, because I'm like, oh no, there are people out there like these people in this play. And yes, this was written in 2008. Now we're in 2026. So have things either kind of move it a bit far from how people speak?

Yes, but also no, which is why I think a play like this is actually coming to the Broadway stage right now. Because I think we're hearing such absurd things come out of political figures' mouths, family members' mouths, friends' mouths that you're saying, oh, okay, there's a reason why Second Stage might be looking at a play like this and saying, no, we're going to bring Becky Shaw to the limelight here now because this is happening today. And that for me was what struck first. Yes, it's also funny, but also the manipulation behind these characters is such a thing that I feel like we're still dealing with by so many different people in the world today.

[4:44] Jeff Malone: Yes. And I will say that I think that the way these characters interacted with each other and the relationships that they had was all well done. And I will say, we were kind of saying this when we left the theater that the actors all across the board were giving incredible performances with a script that I think only went so far. So they were, as far as I'm concerned, making lemonade out of the lemons they were given. That's kind of what I felt. Some things I've been seeing on Broadway lately have been like, well, oh, it's 10 out of 10 script and 10 out of 10 acting. Great. They marry each other so well. And this felt like the actors had to try a little harder to pull the comedy, to pull the drama, to pull, to pull.

To me, I don't think a script should be low that actors to pull it up to the surface. I look at theater like this. Yes. It's a Pulitzer prize finalist. Yes. It's, it was successful off Broadway. There's nothing wrong with that. I didn't hate it. I actually enjoyed a lot of it, but to me, it felt like actors had to pull things out of it to get it to that level. That doesn't seem like the strongest script to me compared to some other things that I've seen Second Stage do like Marjorie Prime, like Appropriate, you know, some of these things that I've seen that I'm like, whoa, look at that script. And I'm looking at Becky Shaw. I'm like, okay, cool. And I get everything that the script is trying to tell me, but I don't know if I think that's a bigger conversation around modern writing.

[6:06] Richie Grasso: Sure. So when I look at something like this and I would deeply ask you if we wanted to dive a little bit deeper into this, what do you think is lacking in the script for these actors?

[6:11] Jeff Malone: I can totally answer that. I found that there were so many moments where we're two, three, four, five, six lines in or two or three minutes into a scene. And then it's a laugh moment. And then it's a laugh moment. And then we're back to the plot, but then it's a laugh moment. And there were so many laugh moments. Like when I looked at Linda Emond's character and I looked at all she had was one liner funny, one liner funny, one liner funny, which was delivered so great. And she was wonderful. But I left there saying like, are we supposed to care for the mother? Is the mother even telling the truth? Does the mother even love her daughter? Where is she? Why does everyone hate each other? But if that's the point of this, that I'm supposed to leave here, like not quite understanding any of these relationships, then the script did its job.

And that's why I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing. I'm just looking at this script and I'm saying to constantly have to go with the one line comedy, constantly one liner, one liner, one liner. Now someone could say, well, Richie, that's all O'Mary is. All O'Mary is is one liner. Yes. But we're seeing a plot where we kind of know the beginning, the middle and the end. With Becky Shaw, I don't know where the beginning, middle, end is. And we leave also kind of not really knowing where any of these characters line up. And that's okay. I'm just, that's how I felt.

[7:29] Richie Grasso: I think it's hard to compare Becky Shaw to O'Mary because O'Mary is in the absurdist comedy. I think Becky Shaw is rooted in the reality comedy. I think there's a lot of truth that's happening in a piece like this. Written in a little bit more of like a sitcom style.

[7:49] Jeff Malone: It was sitcom style. I also thought the scene where Becky Shaw is kind of introduced into the house and she feels awkward, almost felt like I was watching an SNL skit. Like I was waiting for something absurdist to happen and it didn't. So it didn't go that far comedically. But then I was also waiting for something really dramatic to happen and it didn't. So I'm like, okay. I remember getting to intermission, like, oh, there's got to be something up with that girl. We're going to learn. And then we never really learn other than she does have some odd tendencies and an odd past and a difficult, sad past that allowed all these other people to derail because she came into life.

[8:26] Richie Grasso: Right. So I totally get that. Like how is your life before someone enters it? And then when someone enters it and doesn't leave it, as this case says, she doesn't want to leave their lives and it derails them all. If that's the point of this, awesome. You don't need to give me a funny line every three minutes or three seconds. So that's where it felt a little like it's funny. Right. Are you laughing? Because that was actually awkward and funny. Right. And I was like, just keep telling the plot, please. Like, I think that's how I felt.

[8:54] Jeff Malone: Okay. But on a surface level, I feel like we're talking about like, yes, the funny part of this and yes, the sitcom style of this. And yes, we're looking for things like that. But could the more concept here around people manipulating each other through comedy be the actual point of this play?

[9:12] Richie Grasso: It could be. If then at the end, we learned more aha moments like, oh my gosh, Becky Shaw's actually blank. Oh, Becky Shaw actually did that. But the aha moment is the manipulation. They would manipulate each other to get their ways. Every single character on that stage manipulated someone else to get their way. That in itself is the point and why I connect it back to, okay, yes, this was in 2008, but now we're in 2026 and we're connecting this to the real world and how we're constantly getting manipulated in today's day and age. We have a president that is constantly manipulating so many people in so many different ways that I look at something like this and I say, listen, this is what they're doing on the stage, manipulating each other. So, you know, that's just kind of like my big takeaway from a piece like this.

[10:08] Jeff Malone: Sure. And I get that. Yeah. But I think this is a great time to kind of move into the overall production of this piece, the direction, design and cast. But before we do that, we're going to take a quick break.

[10:17] Richie Grasso: Okay. And we're back. So let's get into the overall production here and move right into the direction. We have Trip Coleman directing this piece and we've seen work by Trip before and now we're seeing this kind of similar to other pieces that we've seen from him, like The Significant Other, Cult of Love, now Becky Shaw. Where do you kind of see this work?

[10:39] Jeff Malone: I think Trip Coleman does a nice job with this. I think this is great. And moving the scenery pieces through in the different locations and the transitions were nice. I don't know if this is a Tony nomination for them or not. I'm not sure. Maybe. It didn't really stand out too much compared to some of the other direction I've seen of plays this season. But I didn't hate it and it moved nice. And I thought that Trip working with the set designer in the way, the set designer being David Zinn, scenic design, the diagonal wall, the use of the different, the big opening of the big house at the end, there were some cool moments there. I thought that was nice.

[11:11] Richie Grasso: I will say I enjoyed this direction from Trip a lot. And where it sits for me, I think probably is in more of the better work that I've seen from Trip. I would drop a hot take here too, because I saw one of my favorite things happen on a Broadway stage. And this is maybe even done before. But what I saw Trip do with this was when we moved scene transitions, the actors were still part of the scene and they were moving it like it was almost like a cartoon or a sitcom where the walls are moving and they're freaking out. And I found that to be so funny and interesting that I have not seen that happen on a stage. When the skier walked across because she went to the ski area and the other character's like, whoa, what are you doing in the living room? Like, yeah, that was all funny stuff.

[12:01] Jeff Malone: Or all of a sudden the wall appears and they're like, what's happening? But again, to me, that would lean into an absurdist comedy place. If they did that in O'Mary, the walls are moving, it would literally live in that world. For this, it seems like a gimmick that, oh, we're going to laugh at that, but what's happening in the

[12:22] Richie Grasso: To me, the plot really didn't become the focus of this. It just didn't seem like it was the focus. But then I think some of the actors' performances, I will really say that I think they really pulled stuff out. I think Lauren Patton was incredible in this. I haven't seen her do a non-musical role, and I thought this was very impactful. She carried this show very well. I think that the actors here are five out of five for me. All of them gave great performances. I have a big hot take here that Alden Ehrenreich may have given me one of my favorite acting performances on a Broadway stage this season. I was completely captivated by the work that he was doing on this stage and giving that performance.

I believed it. I believed that he was this man that needed to manipulate every single person on that stage, and it gave it to me. I really, really enjoyed that performance. Totally. He was a strong standout. I thought Linda Emond also was so strong. I think she was only on stage in the beginning of the show, and at the end of the show, she gives a great strong performance. She based that off of a lot of people, I think, that really act like that. Listen, when you have to drop one-liners and you have to kind of steal the show for like the two moments that you get to come on this stage, and she comes on in the beginning and she comes on at the end, she's memorable, and that is a big kind of thing to take on here.

We have Madeline Brewer also in here. We've seen her in The Handmaid's Tale. She plays Janine. I loved seeing her on the stage here. She kind of gets a little typecast in a way because this is another role that's a little kooky crazy. I think Madeline Brewer comes from the TV world and plays this role well. It's ironic that Becky Shaw seems to be the one that's the most set in the stick in the mud, for lack of a better term, that everyone around her is acting erratic, yet she is the one who has done some erratic things or caused some erraticism, and yet everybody else around her, but she's not outlandish in her. She's just kind of like wants to be present. It's clearly someone who wants to be around the chaos or part of a family like this.

And so she kind of inserts herself and doesn't leave. And I think that she does that with that character as best as she can and creates the chaos. And we have Patrick Ball. I thought his performance was nice. He's from the TV show The Pit, and everyone's been talking about it too. We have a lot of TV on Broadway again, and to see this is great. I thought they all had really strong performances. Was there any kind of moment in the show that you kind of remember or feel like one of them gave you something that you were like, wow, that was really great?

[15:10] Jeff Malone: I just think a lot of the scene work between them all in general, I don't have any specific moments. I'm sure there's a few, but it was just the volleying back and forth of the dialogue and moving the scene along and finding the inserted moments. It just felt like they all handled it very well. Yeah. And I kind of like, I'm sitting in this theater too, and I look at this and I say, oh, we have an audience that is really finding the laughter in this piece though. And I do kind of go back to this whole like sitcom style here because I think a lot of the people that we were with come from that generation of sitcom. We don't really have a lot of sitcom on TV anymore that like is like the laugh track kind of style, like a la Seinfeld or Friends or things like that. And I see this and I say, oh, I think this is touching an audience that really is hungry for something like that. So I thought it was good.

[16:13] Richie Grasso: One thing I will say about the sitcom thing that you bring up is very interesting is in sitcoms, you can see seasons and seasons of shows that essentially have no plot, right? So you're making the argument that this is very sitcom. Okay. Then that does counter to my argument, which is, well, then we're not extremely focused on the plot. If we're going to feel like this is just people laughing at each other. But there was a plot. There was a lot going on though. I never felt like I truly a thousand percent understood everyone's relationship because I wish there was just more time sat in those relationships. But I think that also then would have contradicted the point of like people coming in and out of life and going absent from four months and not answering the phone and then coming back into life. Who walks into your life? Who doesn't walk out of your life? Total commentary on the world. And I get that. And I think that if that was the point there, then I got that.

[17:09] Jeff Malone: Yeah, I agree with that. So, yeah. All good. All right. Well, let's take another quick break. And when we get back, we'll get into our own kind of questions about this, any Tony buzz, and our final thoughts.

[17:15] Richie Grasso: Okay. And we're back. So let's kind of get into the Tony buzz around here. Where do you think Becky Shaw is going to fall in this? Because I do know that this will be up for a revival because it had an off-Broadway commercial run in 2008. I could see it getting a Best Revival nomination. I will say that I see Alden getting nominated. I do. I think he would actually be really impressive to see a nomination for, as well as Lauren Patton. I think those two could really carry it in the leading categories. I would assume they would be in leading. I thought they were very strong in what they did in this show. The others are smaller roles. I don't know if they're doing anything. Linda's role is very small.

I don't know if that would be considered for a supporting, but the other three. Well, I also think it's tough because comedy is sometimes very hard for getting nominated in the Tony season. I would agree with you that I think Alden and Lauren probably have the biggest moments to probably get nominated. And then as we kind of finish out this Tony season, as we see more of the plays, I'll have a better understanding of what can be nominated for supporting. And maybe some of them might. I probably wouldn't lock any of them right now. I do think that this could get a Best Play revival. I do think the scenic design also could potentially get nominated in this. But yeah, that's kind of where I'll sit on this for right now.

[18:37] Jeff Malone: And what do you kind of feel like the takeaway though should be for a play like this?

[18:41] Richie Grasso: Well, that's what I think I'm a little confused on is if you want me to be honest, when I see that this has this commercial off-road run many years ago, I would love to know why this now. It kind of goes back to what I said earlier. Why are the artistic teams of, you know, second stage prize itself on putting shows up by living American playwrights? There's so many living American playwrights who have pieces that could come on to this stage that what was it that were 18 years later and someone is in a room saying, oh, let's put that back on Broadway. Why? I would just love to know why. I think that's what's missing for me is you're able to put your cast and your director and your designers together and make it work.

But when there's so many, you already had a long commercial run of this. To me, the way I look at it is do a long commercial run and then say, wow, this was great. Let's put it right on, put it in the 2009 Tony season, right? Or the year after to wait all these years. It comes across like, well, we have a slot to fill. And that's why I'm quite shocked that when they put so much pressure into the show that lands in the spring, being the one that they want to get the most Tony buzz, I don't see this as that show. I'm actually shocked that Marjorie Prime wasn't in this slot. Maybe it was a scheduling issue with actors or whatnot. But when I'm taking a show, it almost was like, what should we put?

What it feels like is what should we put in that last slot? Oh, well, remember we did Becky Shaw 18 years ago. Okay, let's pull that out of. Yeah, sure. I think that would be great. That's what it feels like. And it doesn't feel like they could have put a million things into the slot. That's all I'm saying is it feels like a filler year, not saying anything about the creative. And I know a ton of people put so much hard work into this. I'm not saying it's anything against what they've done. I'm talking about the literal show choice. That feels a little off to me in this season. I've had a lot of people come up to me and say, Oh, Becky Shaw. Yeah. What is that? Why is that? Where is that? Should I go? Who's in it? It just doesn't, I haven't heard anything about it. So to me, it feels like it's getting lost in the shuffle of the season.

[21:01] Jeff Malone: Sure. Maybe potentially, but it did get really great reviews from the theater community itself. I think it has kind of lived up to its name from 2008. And now I look at this and I say, second stage has more, yes, around their mission of bringing modern theater playwrights to the Broadway stage. But I look at this and I say, most of their pieces have a through line of discomfort that you bring to each piece. When you have things like Becky Shaw and purpose and cult of love and even appropriate. We have these moments and mother play too. We have these moments of discomfort on the stage around modern themes that I think live up to what their mission is.

[21:34] Richie Grasso: Sure. And that makes sense. And that's what the takeaway is for me here. And this one is around the word of manipulation. And I think it checks the box for me in that way with great performances by the actors on the stage.

[21:42] Jeff Malone: Totally. Oh my gosh, just about out of time. So we have our half minute segment where we talk for 30 seconds about what we would want to say to the creative team about this piece for 30 seconds nonstop. So why don't you go first this time? And for 30 seconds, Jeff, I would like you to tell me what you would like to say to the cast and creative team of Becky Shaw at second stage. Go.

[22:07] Richie Grasso: My note here would be that I enjoyed the discomforting comedy that was happening in this piece. I thought we had really great casting that would happen on the stage. They were giving it their all. If I probably had one note, I might touch a little bit on what you were saying as well, that I think there maybe would have been a slight bit more of a takeaway from the overall ending of this piece. But other than that, I liked the comedy. I liked the discomfort. There we go. 30 seconds. Good. Awesome.

[22:36] Jeff Malone: All right. My turn now. Ready to go. Okay. So for 30 seconds, Richie, if you had a moment with the creative team here, what would you tell them and go? Really impressive design work, direction, and acting across the boards with this piece. I'm really blown away by how committed the whole team was. And then if I was to go to the producers, I would say, I wonder why this show was chosen for this season? Why bring it back all these years later? And is there something else that you're trying to relate to a modern audience right now with a piece like this? Or are you leaving a lot of things ambiguous and up in the air for the audience to kind of decide themselves? That's kind of where I would leave that.

[23:22] Richie Grasso: Yeah. Okay. Amazing. So final thoughts on Becky Shaw at second stage? Listen, I liked this because I think that this was pure entertainment in a way with a bit of a message. And I liked the comedy. I liked the discomfort. And I think this is great acting that is happening on this stage this season. So I would highly recommend checking this out this season.

[23:42] Jeff Malone: I liked it. I didn't love it. I thought overall, I think it's great that it's getting good buzz. It's definitely a modern piece, gets you laughing, gets you thinking, gets you realizing, whoa, the decisions people make are quite interesting. Right. And I think if that's the purpose of leaving here with this, then sure. Maybe we all have a Becky Shaw in our life that enters our life and ruffles feathers and doesn't mean to, but also means to and doesn't leave, but wants to, doesn't want to leave. And what is that in all of our lives? Maybe that's the reflective point that we try to leave with something like that.

[24:09] Richie Grasso: Oh, I have definitely met a few Becky Shaw's in my life.

[24:12] Jeff Malone: Poor Becky.

[24:20] Richie Grasso: Poor Becky Shaw. So there we go. Well, that's just about all I got. So that does wrap up our discussion for this episode. We hope you enjoyed our deep dive into Becky Shaw. And remember, we want to hear from you. Continue the conversation with us on Instagram and TikTok at Half Hour Podcast and drop us a comment on Spotify and let us know your thoughts on Becky Shaw. Please also leave us a review. Your reviews mean so much to us. And remember to subscribe to our channel for all past and future episodes. Until next time, I'm Jeff.

[24:42] Richie Grasso: And I'm Richie saying ta-ta for now. Bye.