'Curse of the Starving Class' review — Sam Shepard drama cuts to the core of Americana
Read our review of Curse of the Starving Class off Broadway, a revival of Sam Shepard's play starring Christian Slater, Calista Flockhart, and Cooper Hoffman.
No one understood the link between manifest destiny and masculinity quite like Sam Shepard. The late playwright knew that an American man’s potential lay in the open prairie of the Midwest, waiting to sprout like wheat, and that tests of his strength came in the harshness of the unconquered desert. Whether Shepard’s work champions these ruffian views or skewers them mercilessly is the question that keeps his characters’ hearts beating years later.
In Curse of the Starving Class, now revived by The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center, the Tate family’s perception of responsibility and legacy has the potential to doom them to a cycle of near-poverty or raise them up by the power of their own refusal — the refusal to identify as members of the starving class.
It takes a long time for Cooper Hoffman’s Wesley to admit he is starving. While his sister Emma (newcomer Stella Marcus, who masterfully handles Shepard’s style) is eager for the rest of her family to wake up to reality, their parents insist in front of an empty refrigerator that they are not poor.
As matriarch Ella Tate, Calista Flockhart’s near-catatonic intonations of Shepard’s realist dialogue combine tension and exposition in the playwright’s signature manner, but it is Christian Slater’s bumbling and booming Weston who makes the show his own. As the Tate family patriarch, Slater arrives like a storm on the shore, ripping through the kitchen and then pacifying his own terror, keeping the audience on their toes in director Scott Elliott’s production, whose nearly 3-hour runtime and stagnant setting (all the action takes place in set designer Arnulfo Maldonado’s decaying kitchen) otherwise threatens to drag it down.
Curse of the Starving Class summary
When Ella, strung out and tired of her husband’s drunken tirades, conspires to sell her family’s home and plot of land, she’s met with resistance from her son Wesley, who wants to stay in the home, and her daughter Emma, who can’t wait to flee. Wesley suspects his mother’s lawyer, the skeptical but smooth-talking Taylor (Kyle Beltran), may have darker motives up his sleeve, while Ella’s volatile husband Weston devises his own plot to sell the home out from under his family.
What to expect at Curse of the Starving Class
Curse of the Starving Class includes depictions of alcohol abuse and cigarette smoking as well as depictions of emotional and physical familial abuse. The script also contains references to gun violence.
A live sheep (played by Lois the sheep) is seen onstage multiple times — she steals the show, making the audience giggle and coo every time she turns her big eyes — and though there are references to butchering, there is no depiction of animal cruelty in Curse of the Starving Class. The production also features urination, haze and smoke, and loud noises.
What audiences are saying about Curse of the Starving Class
Curse of the Starving Class has an audience approval rating of 71% on the review aggregator Show-Score.
- Show-Score user GreatAvi described Elliott’s direction as a “powerful and gritty treatment” of Shepard’s play.
- Writing on Bluesky, theatregoer Marika Brownlee wants Lois the sheep to go viral like Peggy the goose from the play The Ferryman.
- Show-Score user AVC noted that there were moments when the cast of Curse of the Starving Class “found that magical combo” of humor and heartache but found the production was “lackluster” overall.
Read more audience reviews of Curse of the Starving Class on Show-Score.
Who should see Curse of the Starving Class
- Fans of Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age film Licorice Pizza will enjoy seeing star Cooper Hoffman onstage as Wesley.
- If you’ve enjoyed The New Group’s previous programming, check out company favorites David Anzuelo and Jeb Kreager in the ensemble of Curse of the Starving Class, which is directed by New Group artistic director Elliott.
- If you live for the anything-can-happen, edge-of-your-seat aspect of live theatre, you won’t want to miss a play with a live sheep!
Learn more about Curse of the Starving Class off Broadway
Shepard’s American-made, kitchen-sink realism may not attract all audiences, but Curse of the Starving Class remains an enticing family drama that will keep you up at night wondering if we can escape our own fates.
Photo credit: Curse of the Starving Class off Broadway. (Photos by Monique Carboni)
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