By Brian Scott Lipton . . .
There’s an incredibly famous saying in the entertainment world: “Never work with children or animals.” Now, on the basis of Second Stage Uptown’s production of Danny Tejera’s diffuse drama Toros at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre, that aphorism must be forever changed to “never work with children or animals, and especially not Frank Wood playing an animal.”
Yep, you heard me. For most of the show’s 90 minutes, the Tony Award-winning actor, clad in tan sweatshirt and sweatpants (carefully chosen by costumer Enver Chakartash), plays the elderly golden retriever Tica. And whether curled in a dog bed in the corner of Arnulfo Maldonado’s remarkably detailed version of a suburban garage, begging for attention from his owner, the perpetually obnoxious Juan (Juan Castano), or receiving a bit too much puppy love from Juan’s childhood friend, Toro (Abubakh Ali), Tica is the most sympathetic, understandable “person” on stage. Watching Wood is actually worth the price of admission.
In most other ways, the play resembles Kenneth Lonergan’s superior This Is Our Youth in both structure and theme. But we are perhaps at a cultural disadvantage here. The setting of “Spain, late 2010s” doesn’t really mean anything to most Americans and does nothing to explain his characters’ behavior. Plus, the fact that all three of them—including schoolteacher Andrea (the excellent non-binary performer known as b, handing in the evening’s best human performance)—are still struggling so much emotionally in their late 20s, makes them a little less appealing than they could be.
Persuasively played by Castano, Juan is almost the epitome of the angry young man, especially when calling his supposed friend Toro a “bitch” over and over again, mostly for very little reason. He has no one to blame when Toro and Andrea become an item—even if Juan suddenly has feelings for her—since he suggested it to Toro from the first moment we saw him.
And, admittedly, we can all sympathize with not getting your dream fulfilled (or at least quickly), as Juan’s hopes of becoming an internationally famous DJ evaporate before our eyes. Still, he lives a solid upper-class life in his parents’ house, has a good job in real estate (working for his father, Carl, eventually played by Wood in his usual low-key fashion) and plenty of money to burn on booze and blow. You want to scream “grow up!”
Toro—real name, Alexander—is a far more complex character, one that often eludes Ali’s grasp. Movie star handsome and seemingly whip-smart, Toro would seem to have it all, and we discover he’s recently moved back to his hometown after abandoning a promising life in New York City. He eventually explains his reasons why to Andrea, if not Juan, and they are indeed compelling. But, somehow, Ali can’t quite convince us that he’s the sort of “lost boy” that Tejera has in mind; he just seems unfocused rather than unstable.
Perhaps the entire play would be more involving in the hands of a different director than Gaye Taylor Upchurch. In addition to not guiding her talented cast properly, she finds no better solution for Tejera’s staccato script than starting and ending each scene with a sudden blackout. In fact, at my performance, most of my audience didn’t even realize the last scene was actually the final one until Wood came out to take a bow!
Indeed, I have little doubt someone else would have done a far better job of “throwing the bull around” and bringing to full-bodied life this potentially intriguing portrait of a generation at sea. But if she personally cast Frank Wood, all is forgiven!
Toros. Through August 13 at the McGinn/Cazale Theater (2162 Broadway at West 76th Street). www.2st.com
Photos: Joan Marcus
Cover Photo: Juan Castano, Frank Wood, and Abubakr Ali
