'Conversations With Mother' review — new play reminds you to hug your mom
Read our review of Conversations With Mother off Broadway, a semi-autobiographical play by Matthew Lombardo starring Caroline Aaron and Matt Doyle.
It’s a long, wintry walk to Theater 555 from the nearest heated subway, but it’s worth the warmth playwright Matthew Lombardo’s Conversations With Mother has to offer. Directed by Noah Himmelstein, the play is tactful, personal, and precise while hitting the sweet spots of relatability.
The mother-son two-hander drama is anything but a sentimental plate of sugary cookies, riding easy on the well-knitted momma-son chemistry between Matt Doyle and Caroline Aaron as Bobby and Maria Collavechio, respectively. From childhood to adulthood, Doyle’s Bobby tries to stash away his mischief and secrets while fielding his mother’s tough love that weeds out his confessions.
It's fun following the pair throughout five decades as they rotate around bereavement and rocky relationships and life’s downfalls. Their banters follow a pattern: Maria might ramble to dance around an issue, but then the pair pivots into serious conversation, and that’s where the zingers lie. In less agile directorial hands, the characters would be repetitive, but they settle into their relationship rhythms. Just when the drama might get mawkish, Himmelstein refuses to drown the play in sentimentality and finds humor folded within grief.
Without being cloying, the dialogue openly alludes to the cliche of a mom-and-son story — with at least one reference to critics finding his work unoriginal. Lombardo’s tightly-paced play is not looking to break any new ground in personal plays about moms, but it earns the emotional beats.
Conversations With Mother summary
Conversations With Mother is Matthew Lombardo’s semi-autobiographical comedy that follows the fraught, but loving, dynamic between Lombardo’s avatar (Matt Doyle) and his mother, Maria Collavechio (Caroline Aaron) in a vignette-by-vignette series of conversations and arguments around coming out of the closet, his rudderless life, his troublesome romances, her widowhood, and his playwright struggles. The play clocks at 85 minutes with no intermission.
What to expect at Conversations With Mother
The characters frequently interact over the phone, often existing in their own spaces but inching physically closer as the play proceeds. Framed within a boxy neon light, Wilson Chin's scenic design suggests a drawing room, backdropped with Caite Henver’s projections to signify location and time period.
There’s a pivotal stage direction where an actor steps briefly out of the neon box, as if walking the border between the stage and the fourth wall, an indication of a major shift. Ryan Park’s costuming and wig/hair design by Tom Watson elegantly charts the aging between mother and son.
At my night, there was tearful nose-blowing mixed in seamlessly with laughter.
What audiences are saying about Conversations With Mother
As of now, the review aggregator Show-Score accumulated 86 member reviews of Conversations With Mother, collectively adding up to an approval rating of 93%. Audiences collectively described the show as “Great acting, Delightful, Entertaining, Absorbing, Clever.”
- Show-Score user Elisa 9119 found the play “relatable to anyone facing similar challenges with their parents.”
- Show-Score user TheaterBuff found the play “charming, touching, funny, and filled with valuable life lessons” with “superb” actors.
- Show-Score user GirlFriday describes the production as a “small show with big heart.”
- “I really enjoyed it. It struck a balance between drama and laughter.” - My +1 at the show
Read more audience reviews of Conversations With Mother on Show-Score.
Who should see Conversations With Mother
- The show will delight fans of Tony Award winner Matt Doyle, star of Company and Spring Awakening, and he expertly integrates Bobby’s sheepish boyishness with a desire for adult independence.
- There’s an audience for the indomitable Caroline Aaron, best known for her role as Shirley on the Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
- Although it isn’t Mother’s Day at this moment, this is a play for people who want to take their mom to the theatre.
Learn more about Conversations With Mother off Broadway
Matt Doyle and Caroline Aaron are a tight-knit mom-son pair in Conversations With Mother, striking a balance between drama and humor.
Photo credit: Conversations With Mother off Broadway. (Photos by Carol Rosegg)
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