Coastal Elites
Shot remotely during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic,Miriam Nessler: He's wearing jeans and a windbreaker, and the hat. The red hat. You know the one. The MAGA hat, in New York City. Two blocks from the public theater and Cooper Union, where Lincoln spoke, and Larry Kramer! That's like me going to Nebraska wearing a yarmulke waving a rainbow flag while reading a book!,References Rosemary's Baby (1968),I'd read a few snooty reviews that dismissed Coastal Elites as smug, self-satisfied, preaching to the choir... etc. The predictable put-downs of critics and commentators who always have to know better. In fact, it's smart, incisive, extremely timely and ultimately quite moving - and while being simultaneously depressing and uplifting. It's exactly the kind of whip-smart political theatre we need right now, when we can't even go to a theatre. Bette Midler is her usual powerhouse self as Miriam, a feisty Jewish momma who channels the collective rage at he who shall not be named. Dan Levy gives a nuanced turn as an actor with mixed feelings about his auditions for a gay superhero. And Kaitlyn Dever gives a restrained, yet masterful performance as a nurse on the front line. All five monologues are exceptionally well-written and brilliantly acted. And all the dopey 1/10 reviews from witless MAGA-hat wearing morons only go to prove that they are, as ever, utterly clueless and doomed to wallow in their cluelessness forever.,