Once it was announced that “Eclipsed” was transferring to Broadway, again starring Lupita Nyong’o as a captive in war-torn Africa, the show seemed a shoo-in for this year’s Tony for Best Play.
Except that “Eclipsed” may end up being eclipsed by “The Humans” — an intimate production with no stars, about a subject we’ve seen a million times: a fraught family reunion at Thanksgiving.
As modest as Stephen Karam’s play sounds, producer Scott Rudin immediately got the rights after seeing it off-Broadway this fall.
Given its clichéd premise, it’s amazing what the playwright and director Joe Mantello pull off here. The show deals with heavy issues: caring for aging parents, economic distress, heartbreak, student debt, infidelity. And yet “The Humans” isn’t a downer.
Set in a ramshackle Chinatown apartment, it’s often startlingly funny, and keeps an emotional grip on its audience throughout. On a different scale, it’s a bit like when “August: Osage County” hit us all in the gut. The ending even adds a whiff of quasisupernatural terror that somehow doesn’t feel out of place.
Aside from the sharp, nuanced writing, credit must go to the ensemble, thankfully intact from the earlier production. It’s hard to single anybody out, but what Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell do as the parents is just extraordinary — without ever looking as if they’re actually doing anything. They’re like the show as a whole, moving stealthily and laying waste to your heart.