Review: Adam Driver Scorches the Stage in 'Burn This'

We're told a lot about a young, dead man's family in the talky first 20 minutes of Lanford Wilson's 1987 play "Burn This," now at the Hudson Theatre. It's easy during that time to let your mind wander and think of other things.

And then the man's brother Pale explodes onto the stage, embodied by the actor Adam Driver, and grabs your attention. His first monologue is a masterpiece of characterization, telling us all we need to know. He is abuzz with chaotic energy, tying his shoe on the arm of the couch, glaring out the large window of the loft apartment, stalking around every inch of stage. All he says he wants is to pick up his dead brother's things, but we know immediately that he's actually looking for connection and to be understood.

Wilson's low-stakes romance is a bit worn around the edges, despite Michael Mayer's sprightly direction. Its outrage over the obliviousness of Pale's family that his brother, a respected dancer, was gay, and the warm acceptance of another gay character, Larry, is welcome, but is no longer as fresh as it must have been when the show first premiered on Broadway in the 1980s. And Pale's love interest, Anna, as played by Keri Russell, is an especially tired character: the ice queen dancer/choreographer who is disconnected from her emotions and must be set ablaze by the married Pale to make really good art. 

Yet Driver's Pale is so vibrantly real, vulnerable and caring, despite all his angry posturing, that we're immediately drawn in. In one of the best performances on Broadway this season, Driver is such a compelling character that we want him to find peace within himself and to find the resolution he seeks so desperately. 

Unfortunately, Driver and Russell don't have much chemistry, partly because her performance is stiff and uncertain. The production is bolstered, however, by two strong supporting actors, Brandon Uranowitz as the kind (and sharply comic) best friend Larry and David Furr as Anna's rich boyfriend Burton. When they're all together at the climax, there are fireworks. 

"Burn This" by Lanford Wilson, directed by Michael Mayer, through July 14 at the Hudson Theatre.