Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train

Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train is a play written by Stephen Adly Guirgis.

Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train
Written byStephen Adly Guirgis
Date premieredNovember 2000
Place premieredOff-Broadway, New York City
Original languageEnglish
SubjectPrison
GenreDrama

Plot synopsis

The play takes place in a prison on Rikers Island in New York. Angel Cruz and Lucius Jenkins face murder charges.[1]

Productions

The play premiered Off-Broadway at the East 13th Street Theatre in a production by LAByrinth Theater Company on November 29, 2000 and ran to December 31, 2000.[2][3] The play was directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.[4][5][6] The original cast included Salvatore Inzerillo, John Ortiz, and David Zayas, Ron Cephas Jones, and Elizabeth Canavan.[4]

The play was produced in London at the Donmar Warehouse in 2002.[7] It was nominated for the Olivier Award, Best New Play for 2003.[8]

It then returned to New York City as writer Stephen Adly Guirgis began his residency at Signature Theatre Company. It starred Edi Gathegi, Sean Carvajal, Ricardo Chavira, Stephanie DiMaggio, and Erick Betancourt. It opened in the Irene Diamond Stage on October 23rd, 2017 and ran until November 26th, 2017.[9][10] Previews started two days late, on October 5th, due to Reg E. Cathey leaving the company suddenly to be replaced by Mr. Gathegi.[11] The production team included director Mark Brokaw, Riccardo Hernández as set designer, Dede M. Ayite as costume designer, Scott Zielinski as lighting designer, and M.L. Dogg as sound designer.

Reception

The production received considerable acclaim from critics such as Ben Brantley of the New York Times and Michael Feingold of The Village Voice.[12][13] However, Pamela Renner reviewed the premiere unfavorably in Variety, with most praise reserved for Ron Cephas Jones. Renner criticized the characters of Hanraham and Valdez as heavy-handed, and also considered the play to contain "awkward exposition. It is freighted by an overload of pseudo-profundity; characters upbraiding each other about the Ultimate Questions can make for rather dreary stagecraft."[14]

In a review of one of Guirgis's later works, Hilton Als described Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train as "hysterical and irreverent", "an outstanding 2000 piece about imprisonment and moral responsibility."[15] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter reviewed a 2017 revival favorably, praising the "incisive characterizations and riveting dialogue". The critic wrote that there are "overwritten passages and reliance on expository monologues. But it also displays incendiary passion and insight into its troubled characters".[16] In 2018, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train was ranked by The New York Times writers as the 14th best American play of the previous 25 years.[17]

Michael Billington of The Guardian, who had given the play three out of five stars in 2002,[18] gave the same rating after a 2019 performance and said that "for all the vividness of the dialogue, the play still strikes me as baffling in its exploration of guilt, faith and redemption." Billington quipped that Angel's final sacrificial gesture "smacks more of romantic fiction than spiritual redemption [...] I enjoyed the production without fully believing in Guirgis's vision of crime and punishment."[19] J. Kelly Nestruck of The Globe and Mail awarded it three and a half out of four stars in 2020, calling it "skillfully structured so that the audience’s sympathies see-saw back and forth between" Lucius and Valdez.[20]

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References
  1. "VSU performers will present play". Archived from the original on 2011-08-13. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  2. "Listing" Archived 2015-04-17 at the Wayback Machine lortel.org, accessed April 22, 2015
  3. Gutman, Les. "Review" curtainup.com, November 28, 2000
  4. "Hoffman Directs Original Cast of Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train for June 22 Reading". Archived from the original on 2008-06-02. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  5. "Jesus Hopped the A Train @ Town Hall". Archived from the original on 2008-06-24. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  6. "About Labyrinth". Archived from the original on 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  7. Billington, Michael. "Review. 'Jesus Hopped the A Train' " The Guardian, 13 March 2002
  8. "Olivier Winners 2003" olivierawards.com, accessed April 23, 2015
  9. Jesse Green, "Review: It’s Law vs. Order in ‘Jesus Hopped the “A” Train’", New York Times, October 23rd, 2017.
  10. Bethany Rickwald, "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train Extends at Signature Theatre", TheaterMania, October 25th, 2017.
  11. Andrew Gans, "Signature’s Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train Delayed Two Days Following Departure of Reg E. Cathey", Playbill, September 28th, 2017.
  12. "Australian Stage Online - Jesus Hopped the A Train". Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  13. Brantley, Ben. "THEATER REVIEW - Locked Up In a Place Far Beyond Redemption". 30 November 2000. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  14. Renner, Pamela; Renner, Pamela (2000-12-11). "Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train". Variety. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  15. Als, Hilton (25 April 2011). "War Games: Battles at home and abroad". The New Yorker. Condé Nast: 86–87. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
  16. Scheck, Frank (2017-10-23). "'Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train': Theater Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  17. "The Great Work Continues: The 25 Best American Plays Since 'Angels in America'". The New York Times. 2018-05-31. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  18. Billington, Michael (2002-03-14). "Jesus Hopped the A Train, Donmar Warehouse, London". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  19. Billington, Michael (2019-02-21). "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train review – faith and horror on Rikers Island". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  20. Nestruck, J. Kelly (2020-02-03). "Review: Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train brings a poetic and profane playwright to Soulpepper". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
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