GableStage: The Motherfucker With The Hat (8 reviews)

GableStage opened its production of Stephen Adly Gurgis' The Motherfucker With The Hat on January 7, 2012.

Jackie is just out of jail and trying to stay clean and sober. He turns to his AA sponsor when he suspects his longtime girlfriend, who is still into drugs, of cheating on him. What proof does he have? A man's hat has been left on the nightstand. This Broadway hit, a fast and furious study of lives in collision, is a bruising and very funny dance of love, betrayal and indecision.

Joe Adler directed a cast that included Alex Alvarez, Arturo Fernandez, Ethan Henry, Gladys Ramirez, and Betsy Graver.

Terry Teachout reviewed for the Wall Street Journal, and knowledgeably contrasts this play with the Broadway production:

The best new play of 2011 had the worst title, which helps to explain why Stephen Adly Guirgis's "The Motherf**ker With the Hat" (as it was officially billed) barely eked out a 112-performance run on Broadway. Now it belongs to the regional theaters, and GableStage, one of Florida's top companies, has mounted a first-class production that confirms my initial impression of its excellence.

Chris Rock, the star of the Broadway production, was new to the stage, and his performance, not surprisingly, was promising but far from great. By contrast, GableStage's Ethan Henry, who has plenty of regional-theater experience, is self-assured and commanding in the same role, that of a slick, sociopathic scamster. Gladys Ramirez shines no less brightly as Veronica, the foul-mouthed working-class babe whose brass-plated charms set Mr. Guirgis's farce-style plot in motion. Elizabeth Rodriguez, who played the part on Broadway, was as hot as a pepper mill but the least little bit too slick to be quite right, whereas Ms. Ramirez comes across much like someone you might meet on the street.

Alex Alvarez, Arturo Fernandez and Betsy Graver are all comparable in quality to their New York counterparts, and Joseph Adler's satisfyingly straightforward staging leaves nothing at all to be desired. Yes, I was thrilled by the play's Broadway premiere, but I'm sure it would have made as lasting an impression had I seen it for the first time at GableStage.

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

What can get lost in all the hype and furor is a fundamental truth about Guirgis’ seventh full-length work: The Motherf**ker With the Hat... is as fresh, foul and funny a play as you’re likely to find all season.

Director Joseph Adler is kicking off 2012 at GableStage with one of the earliest post-Broadway productions of Mother. There are no Hollywood names involved, no controversial casting choices. Adler simply delivers a fine, tight show that moves with the precision of a subway train roaring right on time into the Times Square station.

As usual, Adler has assembled an excellent cast, with three of the five actors making their GableStage debuts. Fernandez imbues Jackie with passion and vulnerability, underscoring the fragility of his sobriety. Ramirez makes Veronica one tough New York babe, a woman with a hair-trigger temper whose drug shuts down her better self. Henry plays Ralph as authoritative, charismatic and morally bankrupt, and Graver’s touchy Victoria becomes just one more of his victims. As Julio, Alvarez gets some of the funniest lines (not to mention heaps of attitude), and he just about walks off with the show.

Hap Erstein reviewed for the Palm Beach ArtsPaper; scroll down, it's a double-bill review:

...if you have been waiting for a successor to frequently profane and occasionally profound David Mamet, the high-octane production at GableStage is a terrific opportunity to jump onto the Guirgis train.

Director Joseph Adler has a way of coming up with the right actors for casting challenges, as he demonstrates again here. All five are top-notch, forming a forceful ensemble that navigates through the hairpin turns of Guirgis’s explosive dialogue. The standout of the company is Fernandez, whose quirky delivery of lines keeps raising the comic bar.

Chris Joseph wrote reviewed for The Miami New Times:

It's more than just an awesomely titled play. It's taut with tension that's heightened by razor-sharp, whip-smart dialogue and propelled by a talented and well-directed cast.

There's a real camaraderie between the two actors who portray Jackie and Ralph. Their performances shine through the quick banter, with Henry's strong-willed Ralph setting the tone for Jackie's salvation (or damnation). Fernandez's depiction of the streetwise Puerto Rican Jackie walks a tightrope between vulnerability and rage, and pretty much nails it every time.

For this production, director Joseph Adler has had GableStage's diminutive stage broken into three sections. An elevated platform in the middle serves as Jackie and Veronica's apartment, and the ends of the stage are the play's other locations; it's another clever design by Lyle Baskin.

Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

Offering only a few moments of respite, Adler propels this 95-minute juggernaut and its white water rapids of words with the unimpeded velocity of an experimental racecar on the Bonneville flats. Once again, he miraculously holds our attention even though characters just sit around talking to each other for nearly entire scenes. We feel like we are eavesdropping from another chair at the kitchen table.

...Adler's other triumph is eliciting a smoothness of delivery from every single actor who subtly deliver Gurgis' lyric if obscene poetry.

Fernandez, once again, creates a character nearly unrecognizable from anyone else he's played before...  Fernandez invests a dopey innocence and even a prevailing sense of honor in this self-deceiving low-wattage criminal.

Ramirez is another surprise as the sewer-mouth girlfriend, considering her role as the sweet Cuban sister with a sunny disposition in Promethean Theatre's The Bearded Lover.

Henry, the only non-local actor, ...deftly negotiates Ralph's Byzantine dialogue with its rapid-fire barrage of wisdom and self-serving rationalizations...

Alvarez pulls off an especially tough challenge... he makes the cousin not only believable, but credibly makes him the only thoroughly admirable altruist in the story.

Graver only has one major scene, but she pours out her character's pain in lashing diatribes of frustration at Jackie's blindness.

Roger Martin reviewed for Miami ArtZine.com:

...I finally figured out why a play with such an offensive title ever got produced.   It's simple.   You couldn't name it anything else.   And it's one of those plays that just has to be seen.

Arturo Fenandez, as ex-con Jackie, ghetto jives all over the theatre, gangly fingers pointing on every yo, the essential street talking thug trying to straighten out his life as long as he doesn't have to actually give anything up...  But he gets it right back, and more, from Gladys Ramirez as blowsy part-time hooker, full-time coke sniffer, Veronica.

As usual, Lyle Baskin's set, Jeff Quinn's lighting, Matt Corey's sound (his originality punches every blackout) and Ellis Tillman's costumes are all you could ask for.

Joe Adler has cast and directed this show perfectly, (strong word, that) but it's hard to conceive anyone else in these roles.   The five actors are solid.   No acting, just being.  ... It's tight, clever, controversial and damned hard to forget.   You'll talk about this piece, I promise you.

John Lariviere reviewed for Talkin' Broadway.com:

Once the audience gets past giggling at the nature of the language, it settles in to be an honest pattern of communication for the characters. It's key that the relationships seem real, and they certainly do in the hands of Fernandez as Jackie and Ramirez as the fiery Veronica. They have the believable chemistry of a romantic relationship built on passion and conflict. The language is handled well, and the pacing and delivery by all the actors in the show is top notch.

A stand out performance is given by Alvarez as Jackie's cousin Julio. He is perfectly cast in a role that provides ample opportunity for comedy. His colorful portrayal of Julio adds considerable humor to this production. He would surely steal the show if not matched by talented actors around him.

However foul-mouthed the script may be, this production of The Motherf**ker With The Hat is smart, funny, tight, well cast, cleanly directed, and rings with truthful relationship observations that will make you laugh.

JW Arnold wrote a skeletal review for SFGN:

Under Adler’s direction, the entire cast, and especially Fernandez and Henry, offer nuanced performances that keep their characters real, even when Guirgis throws yet another unlikely curve to the plot.

Lyle Baskin’s set effectively subdivides intimate boxy space to create three separate apartments and the scene changes are accentuated by Matt Corey’s sound design and crisp lighting changes from Jeff Quinn to give the production a cinematic quality.

Don't even bother clicking through; this is all there is about this production.

The Motherfucker With The Hat plays plays at GableStage through February 5, 2012.