An actor lip syncs not to songs but a taped interview. I’d seen this done only once before. Back in 2005, Lypsinka (John Epperson) performed Off Off Broadway in “The Passion of the Crawford,” taken from taped interviews Joan Crawford did with the legendary publicist John Springer. Perhaps I saw “Passion” too early in the run, but Epperson had problems matching the dead movie star’s voice whenever she started a new paragraph. His mouth kept having to play catch-up to the words.
Deirdre O’Connell is far more proficient at the task of lip syncing to the taped voice of Dana Higginbotham, the mother of playwright Lucas Hnath (“A Doll’s House, Part 2”). There’s not a word, not even a giggle or a sigh, that’s out of place in her astounding performance of Hnath’s new play, “Dana H.,” which opened Tuesday at the Vineyard following productions in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Crawford lived a dramatic life, but nothing to compare with Dana Higginbotham’s. For five years, beginning in 1997, she lived as a captive to a member of the Aryan Brotherhood whom she had once counseled as a chaplain. They traveled the South, living out of motel rooms, and whenever the police encountered them, the officers invariably took his side despite Dana’s face being bashed in. She managed to escape, but as Dana knew all too well, the Aryan Brotherhood’s tentacles reach into every fabric of law enforcement in the South.
Within the first 30 minutes of this 75-minute drama, you may find yourself asking, as I did, “Well, why didn’t she do this? Or why did she do that?” to escape earlier. The power of Hnath’s play — the playwright adapted the interviews conducted by Steve Cosson — is the dark alternate reality it creates. Soon after her abduction, Dana left the world we know, that she herself knew, to enter another. The old rules of behavior, or ways of looking at strangers, no longer applied. Dana escaped the Aryan Brotherhood, but has never been able to return to the real world, or, at least, the world she knew before her long, horrifying ordeal.
Before her abduction, Hana was a chaplain who helped the mentality ill, ex-cons, and others. She is now a chaplain who counsels the dying. Her grasp of various realities is crucial to this second calling, and her comments bring a bizarre but healing resolution to “Dana H.”
O’Connell could have spoken Dana’s lines. The tapes, however, lend not only authenticity to the play but a disembodied quality that reflects the many realities Dana has inhabited. Director Les Waters sets “Dana H.” in a motel room (scenic design by Andrew Boyce). At first, it seems a logical place for the interviews to take place. Later, the space turns into Dana’s rotating prison. Paul Toben’s lighting and Mikhail Fiksel’s sound design under Waters’ direction contribute mightily to that dramatic transition.
Broadway's 12 Top-Grossing Non-Musical Plays of All Time, From 'War Horse' to 'Harry Potter' (Photos)
Broadway isn't just for musicals. Here are the all-time top-grossing straight plays on the Great White Way, according to grosses compiled by the Broadway League up to March 8, 2020. (These figures aren't adjusted for inflation, so recent hits at current sky-high ticket prices have a definite advantage.)
12. "700 Sundays" (2004-05; 2013-14)
Total gross: $32,029,177
Billy Crystal's autobiographical one-man show found favor in two separate runs on Broadway nearly a decade apart.
Photo: Carol Rosegg
11. "Betrayal" (2019)
Total gross: $32,621,468
Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Cox and Zawe Ashton packed 'em in for the fourth Broadway production of Harold Pinter's time-bending drama.
10. "August: Osage County" (2007-09)
Total gross: $32,835,606
Tracy Letts' Pulitzer-winning drama became a huge hit on stage without any big stars -- and then a 2013 movie starring with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
9. "Proof" (2000-03)
Total gross: $32,896,994
David Auburn's drama about a woman with a troubled legacy of both mental illness and genius-level math skills earned multiple Tony Awards, including for star Mary-Louise Parker.
8. "The Play That Goes Wrong" (2017-19)
Total gross: $34,341,708
This farce about an amateur theater company's mishap-prone production of a mystery play is another London import that found popularity on this side of the Atlantic.
7. "God of Carnage" (2009-10)
Total gross: $37,345,584
Yasmina Reza's barnstorming dramedy about two dueling couples earned the Tony for Best Drama -- as well as nominations for James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis.
6. "It's Only a Play" (2014-15)
Total gross: $37,500,966
Terrence McNally's backstage comedy was a huge hit thanks to the Broadway reteaming of Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, stars of the Tony-winning musical "The Producers" a decade before.
5. "Angels in America" (2018 revival)
Total gross: $40,937,028
The 2018 revival of Tony Kushner's two-part epic won three Tony Awards, including for co-stars Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane.
4. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (2014-16)
Total gross: $68,321,435
Another London import, Simon Stephens' adaptation of Mark Haddon's YA novel follows an autistic boy on a quest for the killer of his neighbor's dog.
Photo: Joan Marcus
3. "War Horse" (2011-13)
Total gross: $74,975,253
Michael Morpurgo's YA novel about a British boy's search for his horse in World War I inspired both this epic play, complete with life-size puppets, and Steven Spielberg's 2011 film.
2. "To Kill a Mockingbird" (2018 - )
Total gross: $120,211,443* (as of March 8, 2020)
Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of the beloved Harper Lee novel may have been snubbed by Tony nominators for Best Play, but it has been drawing crowds since opening in December 2018.
1. "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two" (2018 - )
Total gross: $174,056,581* (as of March 8, 2020)
The stage sequel to J.K. Rowling's saga about the now-grown boy wizard has extra advantages -- since it's a two-night (and two-ticket) epic that plays in a musical-sized auditorium to diehard Potterheads.
1 of 13
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
Broadway isn't just for musicals. Here are the all-time top-grossing straight plays on the Great White Way, according to grosses compiled by the Broadway League up to March 8, 2020. (These figures aren't adjusted for inflation, so recent hits at current sky-high ticket prices have a definite advantage.)
Robert Hofler, TheWrap's lead theater critic, has worked as an editor at Life, Us Weekly and Variety. His books include "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson," "Party Animals," and "Sexplosion: From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange, How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos." His latest book, "Money, Murder, and Dominick Dunne," is now in paperback.