‘The Bedwetter’ review: Sarah Silverman’s life makes a leaky musical
nypost.comcomedian Sarah Silverman’s memoir, is not as tight as a fitted sheet.Potential abounds in the tangled show, which opened Tuesday night off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, especially in its central idea: that, to the mile-a-minute mind of a 10-year-old, waking up wearing wet pajamas can feel as emotionally traumatic as an adult dealing with divorce or depression.
Life already sucks, even at 10.“The Bedwetter” uses little Sarah’s nighttime problem as an insightful window into the struggles of the eccentric grown-ups in her family.
2 hours, with one intermission. Atlantic Theater Company, 336 W. 20th St.That smart framework screams out for a bold and moving musical.
So why does it come off so slight and tentative? Holding the show back the most is an understandable flaw, considering the piece is about a famous person: There is way too much Sarah in it.At the start, the exuberant and proudly weird girl (Zoe Glick) shows up for her first day at a new school in Bedford, New Hampshire, and introduces her family in peppy song.Her pop (Darren Goldstein, perfectly cast) owns Crazy Donny’s Factory Outlet, a discount women’s clothing store; her old-Hollywood-obsessed mom, Beth Ann (Caissie Levy), spends most of her days in bed reeling from a tragedy; her teenage sister Laura (Emily Zimmerman) is too ashamed to so much as make eye contact with Sarah; and Nana (Bebe Neuwirth, miscast) is an acerbic alcoholic who has her granddaughter whip up Manhattans.
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