I saw Adam Bock’s tremendous new play A Life at Playwrights Horizons for the second time yesterday. It impressed me again with its deep humor and humanity and with the playwright’s amazing skill at creating characters, writing amazing scenes, and taking unbelievable freedom for himself in shaping the narrative. The first half hour of the play is an extraordinary long monologue by the main character, played by David Hyde Pierce. When I first saw the play in previews, the audience in the intimate Peter Sharp space upstairs at Playwrights was pretty quiet. This time, after stellar reviews, the audience was quite excited, plus clearly many were there who were major David Hyde Pierce fans (including Andy’s friends from London whom we took to see it). And the way he responded to every tiny little ripple in the audience — including instantly saying “Bless you” when somebody sneezed — was fantastic to witness. Tonight is the final performance.
One of the things I always love about seeing shows at Playwrights Horizons is that almost always you can pick up in the lobby afterwards a simple Xeroxed copy of an interview with the playwright conducted by either artistic director Tim Sanford or the literary manager Adam Greenfield. These smart, in-depth interviews almost always tell you everything you want to know about the show you’ve just seen. The interview with Bock doesn’t answer ALL my questions but it’s a fascinating conversation nevertheless. You can read it online here. Check it out and let me know what you think. There’s also a ton of other intriguing stuff about the playwright and the play on the theater company’s website — see here. 
another eye opens 
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