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| This is not a review. I don’t really review shows. I just tend to ramble about them in an effort to make sure I remember them! |
The Lyric Stage Company has been around since 1974 so it would be inauthentic to call it a hidden gem. I’ve only seen three productions there and kick myself after each one that I don’t go to more of them. The acting is always first-rate, the productions are always gorgeously produced and the audiences always have an amazing time.
Even so, I almost didn’t go see The Cake. For no good reason. Laziness perhaps. But the same week that I decided to blow off my Broadway in Boston season ticket for CATS I decided to fill the theater void by taking in a show at the Lyric Stage Company.
And I picked the right one.
Bekah Brunstetter’s story of a baker in the south who wrestles with her religious and personal beliefs against the love she has for the daughter of her dead best friend is the kind of production I needed to immerse myself in. The story itself is essentially ripped from the headlines (copyright Law and Order? dun dun). A baker is asked to make a cake for a lesbian wedding and refuses. But this has a twist. Somehow Brunstetter gets us to understand why Della feels she can’t make the cake for a woman who is like the daughter she never had. Karen MacDonald as Della is breathtaking. Ridiculously funny one moment and poignantly resolved to not abandon her beliefs in another. her performance was better than many I’ve seen on Broadway. You immediately like her even if you don’t like what she’s doing. As well-written as the play is, a less talented actress could lose the audience pretty quickly. That didn’t happen the night I attended. Everyone loved Della.
Most of the straight plays I enjoy tend to be on the dark side so this was a nice respite from that, even if there are a few moments that made me concerned for the direction of the story. Without giving away the ending I’ll just say the resolution was both sweetly satisfying yet achingly unsatisfying.
Still I left slightly happier than I was before I entered Della’s sweet shop.