Everybody knows he’s a fine actor, but who knew that Adam Driver could be so gosh-darned charming?
Driver’s delightful performance as a showbiz superstar melting down in an existential crisis rockets Hold on to Me Darling into hot-ticket status at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, where its production opened on Wednesday. Already the show is said to be practically a sell-out for the remainder of its two-month run at the 299-seat Off Broadway house.
A semi-romantic comedy about a self-involved personality, Hold on to Me Darling is impishly crafted by Kenneth Lonergan, whose best plays such as This Is Our Youth and The Waverly Gallery (and the film Manchester By the Sea) are more serious in content than this entertaining study in egocentric behavior.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
The title refers to a hit song composed by the comedy’s central character, Strings McCrane, a country singer-songwriter turned screen star idolized by the entire world. (The title hints also at Strings’ rampant neediness.) Sprawled in a swanky hotel suite, Strings mourns his mother, whose unexpected death compels him to reevaluate his extremely public existence.
A massage is ordered to ease Strings’ misery and shortly the perky Nancy arrives with her portable table. A nice fangirl and a married mom, Nancy cheerfully rubs away at the horizontal Strings as she sympathizes with his awful woes of being a lonely international celebrity. “I ain’t never met a woman yet who looked at me twice for myself,” he sadly notes. Soon enough Strings and Nancy are smooching while protesting what they are doing is wrong.
A few days later at the funeral parlor, Strings encounters Essie, his demure second cousin, and realizes she’s truly the ideal wife for him, especially since Essie was chums with his cantankerous mama. When Nancy shows up, it is obvious she has staked a claim to Strings and has no intention of losing him to Essie. Beyond these complications, Strings recklessly quits his multi-million dollar film and concert commitments to pursue a drastically simpler existence. His elder half-brother, Duke, reluctantly goes along with Strings’ scheme to operate a little grain and feed store in their Tennessee hometown.
The way that dubious plan works out, which woman nabs him or maybe not and how Strings meets his long-missing dad are among matters resolved during the second act. Clocking in at nearly three hours (with intermission), the overlong comedy offers too much of a good time, but who’s complaining? Not about a play like this well-written one where the talk among its extremely conversational people proves so brightly rendered, or when the laughs fly fast and frequently on the plot’s way to an unexpectedly sentimental conclusion. Lonergan’s portrait of a mega-star hell-bent to downsize his titanic life while selfishly sucking everybody into his vortex is something of a throwback to those solid comedies of yesteryear that old-timers complain nobody writes anymore.
Dominating the production in the tradition of likeable leading men such as Henry Fonda (only here playing a narcissistic celebrity and not Mister Roberts), a warm and charismatic Adam Driver portrays Strings as a wonderfully sincere fellow who helplessly experiences several rapid, radical changes of heart. Driver suggests an ingenuous, nearly childlike, nature to the impulsive character that mostly excuses his excesses. Dressed in black, the 6’ 2” Driver handsomely looms over the other actors just like the larger than life figure he portrays so earnestly and sweetly.
Hold on to Me Darling was first produced by the Atlantic Theater Company in 2016, with Timothy Olyphant playing Strings. This commercial revival is staged very neatly by the Atlantic’s artistic director, Neil Pepe, who directed the original. Using a turntable, set designer Walt Spangler economically provides six effective interior rooms. Three actors from the 2016 show appear here: Adelaide Clemens lends Essie a subtly steely quality beneath her soft, unassertive manner. CJ Wilson gives brother Duke a beery old boy cheeriness. Intensely funny as Strings’ personal factotum and self-proclaimed best friend, Keith Nobbs actually quivers with loyalty. Frank Wood offers a serene presence in the role of Strings’ dad. The character of Nancy is tricky because initially she’s adorable as a star-struck masseuse but as the story develops she needs to become clinging and then grasping in her desperation to hang on to the jackpot represented by Strings; Heather Burns skillfully modulates her pitch and body language to reveal Nancy’s not-so-nice truths. Led by Driver’s engaging performance, the actors smoothly roll through the comedy with the easy assurance that they’re all playing in a hit show.
Hold on to Me Darling opened October 16, 2024, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and runs through December 22. Tickets and information: holdontomedarling.com
