Review Roundup: GOOD TIME CHARLIE at The Public Theater

Read reviews for Ryan J. Haddad’s GOOD TIME CHARLIE at The Public Theater. Performances will run through October 25. 

As a young man, Charlie dreamt of a life on the stage, but his parents thought dentistry sounded better, so he channeled his passion for culture into his nephew Ryan-a fellow theater-loving gay kid with Broadway ambitions. Spanning more than three decades, GOOD TIME CHARLIE is a multigenerational story of gay men growing up, falling in love, and cherishing the arts. Directed by Danny Sharron, this comedic, theatrical love letter celebrates the people who teach us how to dream. 

The Public’s production of GOOD TIME CHARLIE features scenic design by Afsoon Pajoufar, costume design by Enver Chakartash, lighting design by Barbara Samuels, sound design and composition by Ryan Gamblin, and hair, wig, and makeup design by Robert Pickens. Tom Schall will be the fight director. Andrea Grody will be the vocal director. Sarah Lunnie is the production’s dramaturg. Katie Ailinger is the production stage manager, and Rico Froehlich is the stage manager.

The complete ensemble-cast of GOOD TIME CHARLIE includes Sherz Aletaha (Understudy), Timothy Bagley (Lou), Nicholas Barrón (Understudy), Michael Cristofer (Sheldon), Ryan J. Haddad (Ryan), Beth Malone (Janice), Nael Nacer (Charlie Sr./Bob), Artemis Pebdani (Joan/Judy), Jonathan Raviv (Charlie), and Doug Shapiro (Understudy).

Jackson McHenry, Vulture : Caution is inevitable when presenting work about your own family. (The real Charlie is very much alive and saw the play in previews.) But Haddad and Sharron can verge toward the too gentle, adding caveats to painful moments with eddying bits of self-awareness, in which characters interrupt Haddad, insisting they don’t want to relive their own trauma, have rewrites. That’s a playwright’s wrestling match that, as my colleague Sara Holdren noted recently, doesn’t need an audience. Either give us that unflattering scene or don’t. You have to be willing to light the fuse of your Buddenbrooks or Long Day’s Journey Into Night, walk away, and live with the ensuing Thanksgiving-table explosions.

Michael Sommers, New York Stage Review: Danny Sharon, the director, neatly stages the ebb, flow, and full stops of Haddad’s ultra-theatrical presentation at the 200-seat Martinson Hall. The Public Theater apparently has opened its storage units and checkbook to provide a smartly designed event. Led by Haddad’s sunshiny persona as Ryan, the confident ensemble of good actors is especially distinguished by Michael Cristofer’s touching performance as a cultivated gent facing the abyss, and also includes Beth Malone, underemployed in a role as a clear-eyed friend. Everybody capably rolls along with the meta-theatrics of the play and its production.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Theatre Guide : Haddad’s play is intimate and engaging, even as it inevitably covers material about the gay experience that’s been very well-traced. At times, the show sinks into overstatement. Sheldon’s final speech about the arts and chosen family is too on-the-nose and tilts toward gaysplaining.

Average Rating: 66.7%

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