Review of the Saturday, June 6, 2026 matinee performance at the Helen Hayes Theatre in New York City. A play by Gina Gionfriddo. Starring Patrick Ball, Madeline Brewer, Alden Ehrenreich, Linda Emond and Lauren Patten. Scenic design by David Zinn. Costume design by Kaye Voyce. Lighting design by Stacey Derosier. Sound design by M.I. Dogg. Directed by Trip Cullman. 2 hours 30 minutes, including one intermission.
It's always fun to watch bad people at work in a play or movie (not so much in real life). Such is definitely the case with the viciously biting comedy, Becky Shaw. The people in this relationship drama are alternately mean and well-intentioned, predators and victims, self-serving and open-hearted. Full of secrets and thriving on the ability to use them as weapons, these are simply not nice human beings. But you could never tell them that.
A tricky game of manipulation over money, power and love, the lives of this soon to be less wealthy family are already on edge, when a seemingly innocent, lonely girl gets entangled in their lives. Chaos ensues and no one ends up the way they started. Obviously, there's a lot going on here, and trying to capture it all without giving too much away is a fool's errand, so I'll leave at this: this Pulitzer Prize finalist by Gina Gionfriddo is a harsh reality check for modern society, and it left me thankful not have this be in my life!
Trip Cullman's direction is razor-sharp and fraught with tension, with a blistering pace and a few dramatic flares. Design-wise, the lighting (by Stacey Derosier) is unremarkable, save for some appropriately cold hues in the early scenes, and M. I. Dogg's sound was crystal clear, if at times jarring with that way too common penchant for jump scare music to punctuate the end of each scene. (Can we just stop with that already?) The biggest surprise and also the biggest disappointment was the cheap looking and, well, ugly set and costumes (by David Zinn and Kaye Voyce, respectively). Wow, just wow. Community theater on a thrift shop budget isn't really an appropriate vibe at this level or this piece.
Fortunately, there isn't a weak link in the cast. Linda Emond as the matriarch, controlled the stage every moment she was on, wielding her cane like a wicked sorcerer's staff as she made pronouncements and observations like evil incantations. Meanwhile, Patrick Ball walks a fine line between earnestly good, hopelessly naive and self-righteousness as the people-pleasing husband who nearly loses everything to help a co-worker. He says all the right things about women and how they should be treated, but always leaves some measure of doubt as to just how much he means it. As the titular Becky Shaw, Madeline Brewer makes an impressive debut as a master manipulator with pot stirring skills that are unparalleled. Her slight stature, sweet voice and demure look is the perfect disguise for such a trickster, and Brewer plays it with cunning allure - we are both smitten and repulsed at the same time.
It is with the last two actors that Becky Shaw has its real muscle. Lauren Patten is perfection as the messy and messed up Suzanna, a psychology grad student who seems to understand everyone else's issues while blind to her own. Until she isn't. Patten is intense yet not off-putting, and plays her character in such a way that you can be on her side and appalled by her at the same time. Given Suzanna's family, it's no wonder she is the way she is, and the actress navigates it all with excellence. Finally, there's newly minted Tony-winner Alden Ehrenreich, as financial advisor and almost son to this odd family. He is maddening in his indignant need to stick to his steadfast belief system - he embodies the "stay in your lane" philosophy to the point of near destruction. And yet, somehow, you find yourself thinking he's right to do so. He's a bit of an asshole, who uses his personal credo as an armor, and only later do we come to understand why. The play leaves us at a bit of a cliffhanger where he is concerned, and that makes the whole play that much more unnerving and thought-provoking.
The aesthetics of the production aside, it was a funny and challenging piece. I know I wouldn't want any of these people in my life. Gionfriddo spends a lot of time letting us know about characters outside of the play - a father, his financial advisor/lover, the mother's lover and more. The whole time I kept thinking these are the people I want to see. Is that a good thing?
📸: M. Franklin
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