Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize- and Obie Award-winning The Flick re-opened Off-Broadway at Barrow Street Theatre in May with the original cast and creative team. A new cast has take over, including Kyle Beltran, who made his Broadway debut replacing Lin-Manuel Miranda in the Tony-winning In The Heights.
The Flick, directed by Sam Gold, is set in a run-down movie theatre in Worcester, Massachusetts. Three low-wage ushers, at various points in their lives and careers, clean the house and attend to one of the last 35 millimeter film projectors in the state.
For three hours.
And 10 minutes.
In The Flick: “…tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lackluster, second-run movies on screen.” In each scene of the play, characters clean the theatre after moviegoers have left, sometimes without any words said. The production has met with empty seats after intermission, but Baker is praised for her rich characters and entertaining dialogue, as theatre seats are pit against movie theater seats.
In an interview with Variety, Baker said she was inspired by “watching ushers clean up after movies, and becoming aware of them and of the theatre of that, the theatre act following the movie.” She went on to say: “That was really exciting to me. And watching a bunch of independent small town theaters make the shift from film to digital and what that meant for the viewing experience, what that meant for the theater, and what that meant for the daily life of the ushers and projectionists.”
From 2012-2013, 75 percent of movie theaters in the U.S. converted to digital technology, according to Baker during an NPR interview. A play with that as a foundation would seem quite the Seinfeld “show about nothing.” But it’s an intriguing concept for a setting to deliver a “hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world,” as noted about the play.
Interestingly, the Playwrights Horizons artistic director Tim Sanford sent letters to subscribers who complained of the show’s length. Yet, he was met with much more commendation from others, and it was decided not to edit the play’s run time. Moreover, The Flick is the sixth production to premiere at Playwrights Horizons and go on to win a Pulitzer.
Joining Beltran (Avery) – who went on as “Usnavi” for the 2009 national tour of In The Heights – will be Brian Miskell (Skylar/The Dreaming Man) and Nicole Rodenburg (Rose). They replace Clifton Moten, Alex Hanna and Louisa Krause, while Matthew Maher will continue his role as “Sam.”
Other Off-Broadway credits for Beltran include The Fortress of Solitude (2014) Choir Boy (2013) and 10 Things To Do Before I Die (2009).
The Flick is currently scheduled to play through January 10, 2016.
