When Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day opened Off-Broadway in 2019, the dark comedy about the vaccination debate at a high-toned private school in Berkeley, California, was alarmingly relevant. Now, a new equally funny and moving Broadway production from Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman (after a London staging in 2022) is ever more timely. Between the two NYC productions, we’ve had the COVID pandemic which shuttered schools nationwide and notorious vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to head Health and Human Services. The question of to vax or not to vax has never been more impactful.
Spector’s script and Anna D. Shapiro’s staging are equally hilarious and moving. Each of the five characters has a stake in the outcome of the conflict over the school’s vaccination policy and all are fully-fleshed-out people, not spokespeople for particular viewpoints. “No one is a villain,” as principal Don (a comically on-edge Bill Irwin) says. That’s true here and the clash of ideologies reaches giddy satirical heights in a brilliantly staged remote meeting where the bubbled comments of parents sent via computer are blown up on a giant screen (David Bengali is credited with the effective projection design.) The only problem was the audience was laughing so hard at the comments, I couldn’t hear much of the spoken dialogue.
The play begins with some easy laughs at the school’s executive board meeting. (Todd Rosenthal designed the primary-color school library set.) In attendance are Don and four parents, each of the five competing to be the most socially aware, woke and politically conscious. The action really takes off in the next scene when there is a reported case of the mumps in the student body and the board of health orders the school closed for quarantine. The school’s policy of optional observance of recommended vaccinations comes under fire. The earnest camaraderie among the board soon deteriorates as each makes their pro or con stance known, often for very personal reasons.
Irwin is riotous as the principal attempting to please all sides and gradually becoming unglued as the emotions escalate. Jessica Hecht is particularly outstanding as the seemingly all-smiles parent Suzanne. Every word and gesture is loaded with meaning as she offers links to websites to support her opinions and unwittingly exposes her own prejudices despite her liberal platitudes. Her matter-of-fact delivery of a shattering monologue explaining her anti-vax views is heartbreaking.
Amber Gray is equally strong as a mother taking the opposite side of Suzanne and Thomas Middleditch and Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz give off sparks as clandestine lovers, setting up playdates to conceal their trysts. Yakura-Kurtz also has a very funny scene where she knits with increasingly intensity to conceal her suppressed rage.
Eureka Day is that rare production filled with equal parts laughs and pathos while addressing a contentious issue which concerns all audiences.
