Commanding performance centers Detroit Repertory Theatre's 'Between Riverside and Crazy'

Strong performances and some wildly funny moments make for a great time at the theater in Detroit Repertory Theatre’s production of “Between Riverside and Crazy,” Stephen Adly Guirgis’ 2015 Pulitzer-winning play that centers on a retired New York police officer.

Pops, a widower who was accidentally shot by a fellow police officer, has spent years stewing in his rent-controlled Riverside Drive apartment while pursuing a discrimination case against the NYPD. In the meantime, he tries to provide wisdom and a soft place to land for his shifty son, Junior; Junior’s ditzy girlfriend, Lulu; and Junior’s friend, recovering addict Oswaldo. A chain of increasingly unexpected incidents quickly upends all of their lives, leaving each person’s future unclear.

Cantankerous Walter “Pops” Washington is one of the great stage roles for a Black actor of a certain age, and a powerfully magnetic turn by David Skillman gives the show its foundation. Cracking off fiery one-liners with lightning timing and delivering dark, dramatic moments with equal heft, the aptly named Skillman’s presence expands to absorb everything onstage and even the audience.

He’s supported by a capable ensemble, most notably Shavonne Coleman’s endearingly goofy Lulu, Matt Hollerbach’s absolutely repugnant Lieutenant Caro and Kate McClaine’s spectacular, side-splitting Act Two performance as a complicated woman sent on a care visit by Pops’ church.

Will Street, returning after this season’s opener “Topdog/Underdog” to play Oswaldo here, gives a sensitive and vulnerable performance that gives way to something shocking later in the show. John Wolff (as Junior) and Sara Cathryn Wolf (as Detective O’Connor, Pops’ old partner on the force) round out the cast, doing their best work as the tension in the apartment ratchets up toward the ridiculous.

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Director Jeff Nahan successfully steers his cast through the ever rising and falling drama, giving characters space to develop and earned moments room to breathe. He also shows a deft hand at comedy —even in the show’s ugliest and most bewildering moments, you find yourself howling with laughter. Harry Wetzel’s apartment set looks lovingly lived-in and pulls a cool mini-shift in the second act.

You may have noticed I haven’t gone into much detail about the plot here. I don’t want to give away any of the twists or gags because it would rob you of the joy of seeing them for yourself.

“Between Riverside and Crazy” runs two more weeks, through July 7, at Detroit Repertory Theatre, 13103 Woodrow Wilson St. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 same day, and can be purchased by calling 313-868-1347 or visiting detroitreptheatre.com.

Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.