Rating: 7.5/10
Today is the day the Broadway community has been waiting for! The Tony Awards!! Unlike the Oscars, I won’t be able to make my predictions, since I couldn’t watch all the plays/musicals nominated yet. But I can talk about one of the nominees for Best Play: “Hand to God”.
Set in a church basement in Texas, it shows us a session of a group therapy where the participants are using Puppets to express their creativity. One of them is Jason, who creates a hand puppet called Tyrone (both parts played by brilliantly by Steven Boyer). Jason is incredibly shy and can’t even express his feelings towards his own mother Margery (Geneva Carr) and a girl who is also in the group, Jessica (Sarah Stiles). Tyrone, on the other hand, turns out to have a dangerous personality and takes over Jason’s left hand – literally. Jason can’t control his puppet anymore and everybody else comes to the conclusion that his puppet is the Demon himself and has taken over the boy.
It’s a comedy, but the jokes won’t please any crowd. They are very dark and politically incorrect and there are moments that the audience may feel a little uncomfortable with Tyrone’s actions. But in a season with not so many plays willing to take that risk, it’s interesting to see this one among the nominees. I was really enjoying it, but the end was a little disappointing… (and way too serious for a comedy).
It has 5 nominations: Best Play, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best in a Featured Role and Best Direction. I’m not sure if it will win in all these categories, but I really hope Steven Boyer takes the Tony tonight! What he does on stage is not for every actor. He transforms himself in such a way that you truly believe his hand is possessed. His performance makes it even more worth watching.
