Theater Review: Playwrights Horizons' 100 Saints You Should Know

Kate Fodor's 100 Saints You Should Know, which is now in previews at Playwrights Horizons, is a thought provoking, funny and moving, if not entirely successful, play about the human desire for connection. At one point in the play a character says, "I wish I could focus like that, my brain is always going three places at one time," and I can't help but feel Ms. Fodor suffers from the same problem, as the piece does feel a bit scattered at times. Having said that, there are moments of real insight, a few surprises along the way, and two fantastic performances, more than making a trip to Playwrights a worthwile venture.

The play's two central characters, single mother Therese (West Wing's Janel Moloney) and priest Matty (Jeremy Shamos), are both dealing with their relationships with God -- she, a cleaning lady at the rectory, is contemplating a turn to religion, while he has been asked to leave the church under shady circumstances and is questioning his faith. They are both also dealing with complicated family members -- her daughter Abby (Zoe Kazan) is a 16-year-old trouble maker, while his elderly mother Colleen (Lois Smith) means well but can't find a way to see her son for who he is. Garrett (Will Rogers), a gawky, friendless neighborhood kid, rounds out the cast of characters.

How do we feel connected in this confusing world? It's a valid question, and Fodor has her characters look for answers in fascinating ways. She has chosen to frame her story around the relationships of parents and children, which is not a bad choice, but it's also where she gets into a bit of trouble -- her subjects may simply be too monumental to tackle in 2 1/2 hours. While her dialogue is sharp, and the theme of longing for human connection is woven well into the story, it's the characterizations that suffer. Backstories are a bit murky, and it's sometimes difficult to understand exactly how the each character has gotten to the place they are at. At one point Matty gives a full monologue to the audience, as though Fodor didn't know how to communicate the information she needed to.

But there are also touchingly written, honest depictions of the desire for connection -- Colleen and Matty's tense Scrabble game, for example, and a beautiful moment where Therese simply strokes Matty's hair. These moments, and others, almost made me wish Fodor had ditched some of the religious elements of the play, fascinating as they may be, and focused more on the individuals she was telling the story about.

Smith and Shamos are most successful at creating 3-dimensional characters. Adopting an Irish brogue, Smith is steely, vulnerable, hysterical and human -- it's a truly fantastic performance. Shamos, too, shows many different colors as a man who desperately needs to feel his "heart surge" -- his struggle is heartbreaking. Moloney, making her New York theater debut, is fine as Therese, but she's too generic to be truly believable as either a cleaning lady or a woman feeling herself pulled toward God. Both Kazan and Rogers have moments of comic genius, and Kazan is unexpectedly moving, but both are a bit affected with their teenage idiosyncrasies. Perhaps as they settle into their roles they will seem a bit less aware as actors of how quirky their characters are.

Despite its flaws, however, the show does work, overall, and made me think in ways I didn't anticipate. Not a bad way to spend an evening at the theater.

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