Lonergan’s “Hold On To Me, Darling” Hugs Naively Tight but Leaves Me Wanting More – front mezz junkies, Theater News

The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold On To Me Darling

By Ross

The line outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village was vibrating with excitement, including my own, as we made our way in to see Adam Driver (“Paterson“; “Marriage Story“) star in a revival of Hold On to Me Darling, a play written entertainingly by Kenneth Lonergan (Lobby Hero). It’s a clever concoction, having a movie star play a country movie star struggling with identity, love, and personal understanding. It’s the perfect star material, crafted for effect, but somehow lacking in a fully formed arch. After starring in Broadway’s Burn This several years ago, Driver, as music celeb Strings, has returned to the New York stage, finding himself in a bigger play in a much smaller theatre. Digging into a role that seems a pretty solid fit for the compelling actor, Driver is quite the presence in Hold On To Me Darling, twanging his voice with country swagger and something akin to charm, utilizing all that he has to get what he wants and desires, while protesting adamantly that he doesn’t know what he needs, or even what he wants.

Directed with effective rhythm and blues by Neil Pepe (Broadway’s American Buffalo), Strings is the perfect framing for Driver to embody. He’s a charming man-child, as he is often called by a woman who has more on her mind than we imagine when we first meet her, and as played by the handsome and versatile, charismatic Driver, we can’t help but be swayed by his obvious recycling of ploys and plays he exhibits with a blurry-eyed honesty that is remarkable. I don’t know if his creation is anything uniquely different than many a solidly trained actor would deliver, but it does the job well, pulling us into his arena and making us want to care for the man as he mourns the loss of a mother, a woman who seems as complicated and problematic as Strings’s own life and attachment style.

Strings has received a call about the sudden passing of his mother, most likely funneled through his forever engaged and earnestly caring assistant, Jimmy, played fascinatingly huggy by Keith Nobbs (Off-Broadway’s Four), in the middle of filming a new sci-fi movie in Kansas City. He rushes back home to Tennessee to mourn the passing alongside his brother, Duke, played solidly by CJ Wilson (Broadway’s The Best Man). The lines these two fine actors are fed are fantastically funny and engaging, even if overblown at times with folksy phrasing or awkward proclamations that border on the silly ridiculous side of ‘country’. But they do find their footing with Strings, as he rallies himself for his return to home. But not before he receives the most fascinatingly engaging (and short) massage by the well-crafted Nancy, played cleverly and clear by Heather Burns (“Miss Congeniality“; LCT’s Epiphany). Now there’s a character that, as embodied by Burns, unwraps itself with a sharp clarity that is awe-inspiring and magnificent to watch. Each rotation brings her closer and in sharper focus, and its an act worth her weight in gold.

Ya see, as Lonergan writes this clever song, all the man has ever wanted to do was sing a song or two, and make himself happy by doing just that. So he says. But along the way, he has become one of the most famous country crossover singers in the world, and even though he is now rich and famous, he feels he has let his mama down. In his eyes, this is mainly because he never found the right woman, one that his mother approved of enough for him to get married and settle himself down with a bunch of kids and dogs running around his feet. It’s all a bit fantastically, like a country western song sung by a rhinestone cowboy with enough clever compassion for us all to believe in it, even when we know it isn’t true or authentic. And Strings does it so well and so automatically, that even he finds his way to believe in it all in a way. And upon learning of his mother’s death, he has descended into the facsimile of an existential crisis, full of tears and poetic proclamations of abandoning his superstardom for a simpler life. A retail life, selling his fame for a feed store job. Even if his brother thinks he’s lost his (insert a funny long-winded country colloquialism here) mind.

The man-child shifts and swings around different angles as fast as a country song refrain, falling for Nancy’s innocence and farm-feed roots like a hungry hound dog being offered a treat by a pretty blonde. After lapping up the framing eagerly, he transports her to Tennessee to be with him for the funeral, even when it seems he’d rather she stay quietly on her own at the hotel he puts her up in. “Oh, f*ck her,” he says later on, casually. It’s his way of life, drawing people in with a long-held handshake and a twinkle in his puppy dog eyes, asking for care and a hug, while also thinking of his way out of the building towards something or someone else. For no other reason than to get another shot of external validation that he is ever thankful for.

The character is enticing, even as he exists inside this lengthy and meandering narrative, but the honesty comes into his life a bit later, in the form of Essie, beautifully portrayed by Adelaide Clemens (LCT’s The Hard Problem). She’s his second cousin, twice removed, and her sad stories of losing her husband and father at the same time elicit something inside Strings that actually might be authentic, even when she follows that sentiment with one of the best lines of this pretty funny play, “Well, they were drag racing.”

Played out on one of the most well-formed and intricate sets, designed spectacularly by Walt Spangler (Broadway’s Between Riverside and Crazy), with exacting costuming by Suttirat Larlarb (Broadway’s Straight White Men) and Lizzie Donelan (Broadway”s Waitress), perfect lighting by Tyler Micoleau (Broadway’s The Band’s Visit), and a solid sound design by David Van Tieghem (Broadway’s Heisenberg), this thoughtful play, with great sharp lines but an unfortunately limited outlook, drives forward unpacking ideas around fame and fortune, while also showcasing the celebrity trappings that are forever addictive, even when thought of as entrapment. We enjoy the show like a simplistic country western song, well played and sung by a seemingly authentic character who lives in a different world than Duke’s “ashtray with furniture in it” far removed from the town’s one and only seed and feed hardware store that signifies something wildly homegrown and earthy to Strings.

Impulsive and quick to backtrack, Driver’s Strings certainly carries the room, drawing our eyes towards him whenever he’s on stage, which is in almost every scene in Hold on to Me Darling. Yet, so much happens in this quickly spoken, long-winded, almost three-hour play that is filled with clever dialogue and honest-to-God fascinating interpersonal dynamics. Formulated slyly by Lonergan and presented with a clarity that is generally captivating, the overall impact, in the end, after an add-on scene that I’m not sure is actually and authentically needed, is strangely superficial like a hug given by an acquaintance out of respect and friendship.

The last scene, centered around the late arrival of the last-minute Mitch, embodied with earthbound presence by the always reliable Frank Wood (LCT’s The Great Society), delivers us the last hung of Hold on to Me Darling, and it is naively engaging, entertaining, caring, and sweet. Yet, it left me wondering about the authenticity of that last visual as he backs himself away from Mitch’s scrapbook memories, once removed. I believe we are supposed to feel a coming-home moment for Strings and an untying of his conflict, but I’m not sure the signature-seeking character delivers the seeds required to really get behind this reunion. Is this the hug we’ve been waiting for? Or did it already happen earlier?

Ellie seems to be the only character we can actually have faith in, as almost everyone else wants a signature slice of the country western star who seems to be a confused collision of country lyrics and fantasy filmmaking. Everyone is there for Strings, happy to engage with this big, tall, handsome compilation, but few see him as clearly as Ellie does. This is especially true in that well-crafted line she delivers to him about happiness, which quickly. passes through him with little impact. Hilariously, he doesn’t quite get it. Which is sorta my lasting effect of Hold On to Me Darling. He’s an incourageable flirt, used to getting what he wants, but isn’t so good at changing or learning, in the long run, leaving us wondering if he is able to really take in what Ellie has said to him about happiness and authenticity. This is the lesson, and I’m not sure it’s there in that final moment and that final hug. Leaving us a bit lost, like Strings, as we walk out of the Lucille Lortel Theatre on a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon into the light of NYC.