EUREKA DAY
This Tony award-winner, (it won this year for Best Revival of a Play,) just opened at the Pasadena Playhouse, and although most of the Opening Night audience seemed to really love Eureka Day, it was very yin-and-yang for me. But bear with me for a few minutes, and I’ll share why I feel that seeing it is still a positive experience.
It’s billed as a comedy, but the first fifteen or twenty minutes didn’t make me laugh even once. And the man behind me kept begging his wife to leave!
And then, in a scene where the characters are having a video conference call with other members of their school community, the attendant messages come up on a giant screen in the back, above the action, and the following five minutes or so are some of the most hilarious I’ve ever experienced in a theatre! That one bit is soooo worth the sparse funniness of the rest of the ninety-five minutes. *(And the very last line left us with not only mirth, but tons to discuss at the after-party.) I kept wondering how the person who penned those genius messages can also be the same playwright who wrote the rest of the far-from-uproarious dialogue.
(L-R) Nate Corddry, Mia Barron, Rick Holmes, Cherise Boothe, and Camille Chen. Photo by Jeff Lorch, as is the one at the top of this review.
I hadn’t researched Eureka Day before I saw it, so the only promos I noticed had declared it to be things like “a comedy,” “so funny,” and “one of the funniest plays.” Since then, I’ve read elsewhere that it’s a drama; I think I wouldn’t have been so confused at first had I not been expecting to be amused from the get-go. And by the way, I would really classify it as a straight play with a bit of humor and one absolutely riotous scene in the middle.
So here’s the deal: You may remember that I don’t like to know what a show is about before I see it, but in this case, I was wishing I did because I was just not getting the gist of what was going on for quite awhile. So I’m going to help you future audiences with the plot.
Eureka Day is basically a semi-comedic-yet-still-serious debate on vaccinations, (in this case, it’s the one for mumps,) so this play is truly very of the times. The entire scenario includes several discussions of relevant challenges of today.
“Eureka Day” is the name of the private elementary school where we find the five board members discussing what to do about certain issues with the school, (such as renovations to the bathrooms to make them gender-neutral.) And when one kid comes down with the mumps, the question of vaccines arises for the quintet. And it goes from there.
(L-R) Mia Barron, Rick Holmes, Cherise Boothe, and Camille Chen. Photo by Jeff Lorch.
As soon as the messages go up on that board, the play picks-up immensely, and even though that level of brilliance cannot be sustained, the rest of the narrative is good enough. (My friend Marc had told me he was falling asleep up until that point, and then when that scene was over, he whispered, “I didn’t sleep through any of that. You can quote me.” So I just did!)
The actors admirably keep the acting going during the loud laughs at those messages, even though no audience members are listening to a word they’re saying. That makes the scene even funnier.
There is one very serious scene that is seamlessly woven into the action after about the halfway mark. Mia Barron, (who plays the most annoying member of the board so well that I feel like we all know her,) has a monologue about getting one of her children vaccinated. In addition to Mia’s excellence in the scene, Cherise Boothe, as the newest member of that group, is also first-rate in her silence. When that part was over, Marc and I said a quiet, “Interesting,” at the same time. The juxtaposition of that heartfelt story with the earlier video messages is quite something to witness in that short period of time.
Cherise Boothe and Mia Barron. Photo by Jeff Lorch.
However, overall, even at about only an hour and forty minutes, the production started to seem very long to us. And redundant. But still worthwhile. And that one last line perked us all up. I loved that moment! As we all know, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.*
*Big Spoiler Alert, so if you don’t want to know something about the end, skip to the next paragraph! Here is the shocking info I found-out when I researched the show later: it was written in…2017! Before Covid! That makes the author, Jonathan Spector, perhaps the most prescient writer of all time! Wow.
I must admit that, as a former elementary school teacher, (Five Little Monkeys, anyone?,) I never thought about heavy topics like this. My biggest problem in those younger days was trying to get all the fathers to stop showing up to my room to “talk about their kids.” (My elderly first principal finally had to start scaring them away!) So I always feel for modern-day educators who have so much more to navigate than being hit on by often attractive dads!
On one more personal note, one of the names of the commenters during the video conference is “Leslie Kaufman.” And guess what? Growing up, I had a neighborhood friend named Leslie Kaufman in Brooklyn! (And we’re still in touch!) She’s the older girl who taught me how to do the best mascara, for which I still thank her! So perhaps the funny Zoom messages in Eureka Day will stir up a good memory for you, as well.
Eureka Day running through October 5, 2025
Pasadena Playhouse 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena
626-356-7529 www.pasadenaplayhouse.org
