It started with a dress. Playwright Gina Gionfriddo had gussied up for a date, which became the seed for her dark comedy “Becky Shaw.” “The initial spark was: There’s a dress we call ‘the birthday cake dress’ in the play — that Becky shows up for this blind date overdressed — and I had done it myself,” Gionfriddo explained. “And I was interested in the way in which you lose your power when you show how much effort you put in. I was a little fixated on that.”
“Becky Shaw,” which bowed Off-Broadway with Second Stage in 2008, went on to become a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Now, the play returns to the nonprofit, but this time in its Broadway home at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Gionfriddo’s play tackles issues of class and power in the context of romantic partnership — and the merging of families. “I think the play is concerned with mating: how do we mate, why do we mate, how should we mate?” Gionfriddo continued. “Do you go for someone who is a lot like you or someone who might elevate you, whether that’s economically or … ethically and morally?”
For the titular character, Becky Shaw (played by Madeline Brewer), the answers to these questions are at the forefront of her mind. “She is someone who’s had a rough, rough time and the stakes are high. She needs things to turn around,” Gionfriddo described, “but [she] maybe [doesn’t] want to let people know that.”
But the stakes aren’t just high for Becky, who takes a chance on a blind date with Max (played by Alden Ehrenreich). The two were set up by Max’s pseudo-sister, Suzanna (Lauren Patten), and Suzanna’s husband, Andrew (Patrick Ball) — who are highly emotionally invested in Max’s future. The injection of the family dynamic into romantic relationships is another observation that gnawed at Gionfriddo. “The dynamic I was interested in was, ‘Why do we set people up?’” she told Broadway News. “In the context of the play, neither Max nor Becky are clamoring to be set up. The impulse comes from the newlywed couple — and why are they doing that?”
