Broadway Theater Review: Cost of Living

KatySullivan, David Zayas. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

Gregg Mozgala, Kara Young. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

Cost of Living

By Martyna Majok 

Directed by Jo Bonney
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Extended through Nov. 6

By Lauren Yarger
The bonds of love and friendship and just how far they will stretch are the themes behind Martyna Majok's moving play, Cost of Living, getting a Broadway run by Manhattan Theatre Club.

The drama, which focuses on two persons with special needs and their caretakers, won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize.

Jo Bonney ably directs on Wilson Chinn's stark set where a few key props define locale and mood, in harmony with lighting design by Jeff Croiter.

Eddie (David Zayas) and Ani (Katy Sullivan) are a separated married couple. Things are tense, as Ani is still bitter over the "other women" and Eddie struggles to offer help in the aftermath of an accident which has left Ani without the full use of one of her arms and without both her legs. (Sullivan, who was born without legs, is the first female amputee to star in a Broadway role). Ani needs the help and Eddie needs the money, so they proceed in what becomes an awkward dependence on each other and allows them to rekindle the friendship they shared in marriage.

The second story, told in alternating staging with the first, involves Jess (Kara Young), who seems desperate for a caretaking job despite having a degree from Princeton and practically begs John (Gregg Mozgala), for the opportunity to be the wheel-chair bound man's personal aide (both the character and the actor have Cerebral Palsy). John struggles with being vulnerable and dependent, but Jess is determined and a quick friendship -- and maybe more -- develops. We see the development of these two relationships over a four-month period.

The complexity of the situations is honed by Majok's even more developed characters -- all are flawed, but so real that we can't help but like them and root for them. When they don't live up to our expectations, we react with surprise and disappointment just as we would with real friends whom we thought we could trust. Majok interjects just the right amount of humor and human frailty into the script to balance the the depressing nature of the situations in which the characters find themselves during the one hour and 40 minutes without intermission.

In the end, the message is that people need people. And they need to be needed.

"If everything was perfect in yer life, no holes you had to fill, you wouldn’t be here," Ani tells Eddie. She's right. And we need more plays like this that tell stories about real people in the real world.

Cost of Living has been extended through Nov. 6 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47th St.) 

https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/shows/2022-23-season/cost-of-living.

Additional credits:

Jessica Pabst (costume design), Rob Kaplowitz (sound design), Mikaal Sulaiman (original music), Thomas Schall (movement consultant). 

FAMILY-FAMILY FACTORS:
-- Language

-- God's name taken in vain

-- Nudity (though discreet)

Covid Protocol:

Masks are required.