There are no matinees in New York on Fridays, but this Friday there was a public orchestra rehearsal with singers of that cult favorite Stephen Schwartz musical from 1972, Pippin, at the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Featured were three A-listers from the recent revival — Terrence Mann, Charlotte d’Amboise and Andrea Martin. Only in New York, as they say.
Tonight I saw the Tony Award-nominated Purpose, the latest from Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose play Appropriate was named best revival last season. Purpose is another complex family play — dysfunctional, of course — an upscale African-American clan that includes a civil rights icon and a politician convicted of embezzling campaign funds.
The play struck me as a little overwritten and in need of some editing, but its first act ends with a humdinger of a dinner scene (shades of August: Osage County).