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The dynamic between an overbearing mother and a gay son is an ever-productive area for artistic exploration.
(His father is, crucially, out of the picture.)
Shes imperious, hes impish: They bicker and crack each other up.
And shes there as a SoulCycle-obsessed power gay named Brayden with whom Naphtali goes on a disastrous date.
And shes there as a flibbertigibbet actress friend with a Hydro Flask who set Naphtali up on that date.
The play is, quite obviously, structured as a showcase for Nixon.
enthusiasm tends to warm the spikier corners of the play.
The set-up asks a lot of Trensch, too, whom Ive seen mostly in musicals likeDear Evan HansenandCamelot.
But more often, the bells and whistles come off as a winky pastiche of self-serious performance art.
Those effects lay a lot of extra filigree on top of Seaveys already rangy script.
The spirits of Kushner and Kramer are strong in him (let Seavey run loose over an epic!
Its at its best when Nixon and Trensch turn the temperature down and return to that essential mother-son reckoning.
The Seven Year Disappearis at the Pershing Square Signature Center through March 31.
