Sweet, Sweet Friendship

‘Superior Donuts’ brings message to TheatreSquared stage

Broadway did not give "Superior Donuts" much of a chance. Sean Patrick Reilly knows that all too well. He served as understudy to several of the original cast, but he was out of a job after the just-more-than three-month run.

Looking back five years later, Reilly has an idea what happened. It's something Tennessee Williams would call "the catastrophe of success," a struggle to reclaim the glory of previous triumphs. In the case of "Superior Donuts" and writer Tracy Letts, that previous success was "August: Osage County," which won a Tony Award for best play and Letts a Pulitzer Prize for drama upon its debut.

FAQ

‘Superior Donuts’

WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Thursday, again April 3-4, 9-11, 16-18, 23-25; 2 p.m. April 4-5, 11-12 18-19 & 25-26

WHERE — TheatreSquared at Nadine Baum Studios in Fayetteville

COST — $10-$34

INFO — 443-5600 or tickets.waltonartsc…

"Superior Donuts" earned the distinction of following that show, even debuting in the same New York City theater. The new show's critics were universal in their assessment: It wasn't "August: Osage County."

Reilly says that's true, and that's missing the point. "Superior Donuts" is instead a funny, honest look at friendship, class, gentrification and race. Had "Superior Donuts" debuted just two years removed from "August," people would have taken it as the gem it is, Reilly says.

"People thought 'It's not "August"' meant it's not good," Reilly says.

Slowly, the theater world is learning otherwise.

Removed from the glare of the Great White Way, regional theater companies are picking up on the merits of "Superior Donuts." TheatreSquared offers a production that starts as a preview on Thursday night and then runs through April 26. Reilly, a TheatreSquared veteran who last appeared for the company in "Good People," will direct the show.

Reilly says he initially hesitated regarding the directing opportunity.

"I didn't know what I could bring to it," he says.

So he called his friend Letts, who in addition to writing "August: Osage County" and "Superior Donuts" has also earned recognition as an actor, including a Tony for best actor in the recent revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Reilly says Letts gave him a green light, telling him, "'I think you're going to find things we didn't find.'"

The basics of the show remain intact. The work centers around the titular doughnut shop in uptown Chicago. The rundown shop is owned by Arthur Przybyszewski, a former Vietnam War objector. If there was a national hangover in the 1970s after the tumult of the previous decade, Arthur never snapped out of it, Reilly says. His assistant Franco, a 21-year-old African American, wants to enliven the place with a fresh menu. He represents an entirely different generation, the kind that made a hero of John Stewart of "The Daily Show" fame.

Their budding but still unlikely friendship moves the story forward.

"Why can't we live together? We can, we should and we do," Reilly says.

The friendship is particularly powerful in light of recent situations like the protests in Ferguson, Mo., Reilly says. He believes Letts' take on the friendship that develops in "Superior Donuts" helps us think about our own behavior.

"We either deal with the fact that we're sitting on a volcano, or we watch it explode," he says.

Reilly says any changes made from the Broadway version are those created by the actors. He didn't want to replicate the production from Broadway,or any of the excellent regional theater productions that have taken the stage in recent years. The actors' instincts for the show must be allowed to guide their on-stage presence.

"I don't direct actors. I direct plays. My job is to get them back to the path. I think it's best for the actor to find it on their own," he says.

In a play that's just now finding its footing.

NAN What's Up on 03/27/2015

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