‘Take Me Out’ Broadway Review: Jesse Williams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Patrick J. Adams Pitch A Perfect Game
deadline.comIf the last week in our entertainments has shown us anything, it’s that even the most ordered, traditional of ceremonies can be disrupted by an unkind explosion of id, with ramifications splashing like crocodile tears on even the most unexpected of our heroes.
Take Me Out, Richard Greenberg’s 2002 play that charts the ramifications when a star baseball player comes out as gay, opens on Broadway tonight in a revival that has the perfect timing of a triple play.With an impeccable cast headed by Jesse Williams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Patrick J.
Adams, Take Me Out just might be a revelation even to those who saw the original Broadway production nearly 20 years ago. My memory of the play is the sports-star-comes-out angle, a then-novel concept that over time has become, if not the commonplace, at least not unheard of.What strikes me now about Greenberg’s gorgeously crafted tale are the various dominoes that tumble after the coming out, in particular how hate speech, in all its vile ignorance and cruelty, can ooze its way into the most unlikely places, slime attaching itself to those you’d never have guessed might be susceptible, pushing heroes to do unheroic things.
No one, Greenberg seems to be telling us, walks away unscathed when bigotry and hate come calling.A little background for those who weren’t reading the sports pages back when the 21st Century was brand new.
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