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A ‘Prodigal Son’ with Bronx roots shines at Manhattan Theatre Club

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The Bronx has a new reason to celebrate its favorite son, playwright John Patrick Shanley.

“Doubt” brought him the Pulitzer and the Tony, but his most rarified achievement is his success as a director and writer for both the stage and film.

Move over, Woody. Make room, Orson. Da Bronx is here.

His latest two-hat effort, “The Prodigal Son,” is in previews at this author’s longtime artistic home, the Manhattan Theatre Club. The production is a taut journey both forward and backward through a Bronx teenager’s mid-1960s sojourn at a Catholic prep school in New Hampshire.

We know zip about James Quinn’s life back home, and here the mere mention of “the Bronx” serves only as a periodic whiff of some offbeat savage backwater (you could easily substitute “the Amazon” or “the jungle.” Blame it on that “the.”)

But Jim tells us all we need to know as soon as the lights come up. He says to us, directly: “I was 15. Do you remember what 15 was like?” 

The thrill of “The Prodigal Son” is that it charts this coming-of-age story in such a forthright way. Jim Quinn is complicated and mercurial. He’s also troubled, lonely, antisocial, charming, combative, insightful, exasperating and smart. He’s a challenge all around — to himself, and to the English professor and headmaster who must make continual adjustments to their own values in order to corral Jim onto the right path.

And though the young Quinn remains restless and short-fused, his elders’ efforts at fortifying his intellect rebound upon them to astonishing effect.

Like Quinn and his contradictions, the adults in power here each bear an allotment of damage. The three pathways intersect brilliantly in this compelling ensemble production.

Shanley is supported by an all-star design team: Santo Loquasto (sets), Jennifer von Mayrhauser (costumes), Natasha Katz (lighting) and Paul Simon (incidental music).

James O’Connor, The ticket, The Prodigal Son, Manhattan Theatre Club
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