Getting "Blood From A Stone"

We saw Blood From A Stone last night at The New Group. I bought the tickets because I'm a big Ethan Hawke fan, especially since we saw him on stage in Hurly Burly a few years ago (same company, space, and director - Scott Elliott). Stone also stars Gordon Clapp, who's best known for his years on NYPD Blue, and was terrific in Glengarry Glenross on Broadway (with Liev Schreiber and Alan Alda).

The reviews weren't very good - the Daily News described it as "unyieldingly grim...churns into blandness." The New York Times wasn't much better: it "grinds through its glum familiar paces..."

But here's my bottom line: It's a dark comedy and they just didn't get it.

We (my husband and I) laughed a lot and thought it was terrific. So did the guy next to us, who we'd never seen before. And so did the couple on the far end of our row. It reminded me of the dark comedies of Irish playwright Martin McDonough, like The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Judging by the (very) happy expressions on the actors' faces when they took their bows, we may have laughed quite a bit more than their average audience. (Which is a reminder that laughter is contagious: a subject for another day.)

If that kind of black family humor - whether Irish or American in setting - is your taste, I definitely recommend Tommy Nohilly's Blood From A Stone. The one point on which I will agree with the reviewers is that the actors are all terrific: Hawke and Clapp are joined by Ann Dowd, Thomas Guiry, Natasha Lyonne, and Daphne Rubin-Vega.

In one final note and a nod to my favorite subject of women's restrooms: Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd St., between 9th and 10th Avenues) is one of my favorite places to see a play. It's a complex of 6 theaters that share ticketing, restroom (excellent!), and lounge space (great for a cup of coffee or a beer before a show).