Now that I am done telling friends to grab tickets to Little Bear Ridge Road, let’s tell you about Samuel D. Hunter’s latest drama, which opened on Thursday at the Booth Theatre. Little Bear Ridge Road is a touching, quietly lovely play about a few lonely people tentatively—and painfully—making emotional connections. The intimate 95-minute work is sensitively interpreted by Laurie Metcalf, Micah Stock, and others in a fine, strategically understated production keenly directed by Joe Mantello.
Hunter makes his Broadway debut with this play but already is well-regarded for works such as The Whale, A Case for the Existence of God, and A Bright New Boise, among others. Theatergoers acquainted with Hunter’s earlier plays will find him exploring in Little Bear Ridge Road familiar themes such as isolation, loneliness, and the struggle to discover purpose in life.
[Read Frank Scheck’s ★★★★★ review here.]
Avoiding realistic visual clutter, the action happens around a big, grayish, triple recliner-type couch set on a plain oval rug in the middle of a sable nothingness representing rural Idaho, where the story develops in 10 scenes during the years 2020–2022. Not a plot-driven drama, Little Bear Ridge Road instead presents a poignant character study involving people so alienated by their past woes and present troubles that they cannot recognize potential future happiness, or at least derive some comfort from what’s right there in front of them.
A 30-something writer unable to write, Ethan (Stock) returns to his hometown after an extended absence to sell his lately deceased meth-head father’s shabby house. A rudderless gay man, broke and sadly burned by his last relationship, Ethan reluctantly stays with Sarah (Metcalf), his dad’s sister. A childless, long-divorced hospital nurse, Sarah is an astringent, irascible loner. Aside from their vaguely remembered dismal family history, Ethan and Sarah scarcely know each other. Watching reality TV shows together, they begin to get along, more or less.
Such a scenario might warp into a terribly sentimental event, especially when later it is revealed Sarah’s health is ailing, but that’s not the way Hunter pursues the story, which finally proves to be more about Ethan’s evolution than his aunt’s decline. Nearly midway through the play, during a would-be Grindr encounter, Ethan meets James (John Drea), a very nice, understanding fellow and astrophysics graduate student who gently helps to broaden his poor-me horizons. Sarah is the one, however, who ultimately forces Ethan to move on with his life.
Crafting natural, at times naturally halting, everyday conversations, the playwright usually maintains his characters’ diffident feelings at a cool temperature until suddenly he doesn’t; one volcanic moment erupts when the fiercely independent Sarah rages in frustration over her potential loss of identity in bureaucratic medical runarounds. (Older viewers especially will appreciate Sarah’s tirade.) The subtle humor that frequently lurks within Hunter’s dialogue is mined with surprisingly funny results by Mantello and his exceptional actors.
Of course Metcalf is celebrated for depicting working-class women, so Sarah is not a far stretch for her artistry, but the actress infuses this flinty individual with a sense of wry awareness—and underlying kindness—that assuages her brusque manner. Stock, previously seen on Broadway in comedic roles in revivals of The Front Page and It’s Only a Play, is believable as the depressed, aimless Ethan who gradually, fumblingly begins to emerge from his funk. The contrast between Metcalf’s crisp, dry Sarah and Stock’s glum, slobbery Ethan is striking, and the actors’ expressive body language is eloquent.
Although the universe-exploring James seems really too good to be true, Drea neatly portrays him as a warm little furball—might James be the little bear of the title? The presence of James certainly opens up the drama’s metaphysical vistas. Meighan Gerachis appears late in the drama to deliver its necessary coda.
Scenic designer Scott Pask provides the minimalist alone-in-the-universe looks of the production, which has been unobtrusively lighted by Heather Gilbert. The sound designer, Mikhail Fiksel, separates the scenes with a chilly metallic scrape. Among Broadway’s smaller theaters, the Booth seats fewer than 800 spectators, but even so, viewers may want to splurge for locations way down front to experience close-up such wonderful acting.
Little Bear Ridge Road opened Oct. 30, 2025, at the Booth Theatre and continues through Feb. 15, 2026. Tickets and information: littlebearridgeroad.com
