A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City NYC Reviews and Tickets

"'Funny Thing' makes a convincing case that hard laughter is an absolutely appropriate response to those moments when life seems like too bad a joke not to respond otherwise...For its intermissionless 85 minutes, 'Funny Thing' abides by the rom-com rules that a couple who meet antagonistically have to be attracted to each other. But to render 'Funny Thing' in synopsis doesn’t do justice to Ms. Feiffer’s exposed nerve of a script, or to the open-wound performances."
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"Well, the title is funny. It is hard to know what else to make of Halley Feiffer’s 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City,' a play ravaged by central miscasting...There is good writing in the play, and one can only wonder how it might work with a different actor in the lead role...Loaded with jokes about death and rape, the play aims for very dark comedy but gets no farther than dim."
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"'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York City' only sporadically lives up to its strained title...Other than the abundance of raunchy one-liners, this play has little to recommend it. Neither the characterizations nor situations ring true; practically everything feels forced...For all the performers' efforts, the play ultimately feels as artificial as its derivative, overlong title."
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"A disappointing thing happened on the way to this MCC production. The talented Halley Feiffer takes a step backward as a writer. She earns points for audacity. But otherwise she obeys rom-com conventions and lets this black comedy peter out. Karla is a struggling millennial comedian. Don is a shaggy middle-aged mogul. They meet in a hospital, where their mothers fight for their lives. Karla and Don hate each other at first. No surprise — that changes."
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"Raunchy and fearless, bound to delight some audience members with its audacious mix of crude humor and deep feeling, while displeasing others for the same reasons...Under Trip Cullman's perceptive direction, Feiffer's funny and moving script is presented with a beautifully recognizable naturalism...The weakest aspect of the script is its predictability...Still, her distinct voice is on fine display throughout, in all its uniquely unsettling glory."
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"The playwright and director soon make it clear that these are two very troubled people whose social ineptitude and downright nastiness is a defense against acquiring new wounds, and that's when 'A Funny Thing...' turns interesting and, yes, funny....Reaching the possibility of a romance between the two does not appear to be the playwright's point. 'A Funny Thing...' is more about surviving the first baby steps of emotional healing and feeling safe enough to try one more."
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"The author is a master at switching between a killer laugh line and a moment of exquisite pain, often in a matter of seconds...If the later scenes of 'Funny Thing...' seem a little pro forma, even sitcom-ish, it's partly because Feiffer's skill at writing scenes of tentative reconciliation isn't as distinctive as her knack for invective and shock tactics...Still, under Trip Cullman's nimble direction, the actors traverse the high-wire script with remarkable agility."
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"As a result, the only thing about this play that's truly funny or insightful is its title…The action (a term I use quite loosely) putters around until the expected, or several variations on it, occurs, and things reach a sufficiently tidy arbitrary point to collapse back into the theatrical ether. There are moments along the way that almost qualify as entertaining…And there are occasional jokes that earn, perhaps, a mild chuckle."
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"As smug and heavy-handed as its title. Ms. Feiffer’s rudimentary characters communicate by the sledgehammer approach to comedy. Until the mawkish finale there is a barrage of zingers, one-liners and vulgarisms…Director Trip Cullman’s staging is straightforward but he has the leading actors overplaying to the point of desperation…With its stock characters, deficient writing and shrill presentation,' A Funny Thing...' is a superficial and grating take on the subject."
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"The progression of their relationship is somewhat impalpable but for the fact that here are two major lonely, dysfunctional people, who are thrown together grieving and feeling sorry for themselves...Life can be very inappropriate and people say the weirdest things in the most unusual circumstances. 'A Funny Thing' is just such a time and place. Trip Cullman is a genius at directing this ensemble of top-notch actors who really know how to throw a punch."
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"It's not easy to brighten a death watch situation with laughs and romance. But Feiffer does make the romance she's concocted blossom in full view of two dying women...The humor is often so over-the-top that it tends to overwhelm the darker subtext. Still, Feiffer, Cullman and the actors do manage to let that darkness ultimately surface."
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"The throat-grabbing writing of Halley Feiffer was raw, risky, really hilarious and pushed me hard into the fear and grief that is cancer…Feiffer mocks the powerful thief that is cancer, but never loses respect for what is required of our humanity when cancer breaks in…Lochtefeld is absolutely precious as Don...Lochtefeld and Behrs are a delight to watch as they dance through the embarrassing tears and inappropriate laughter in their interrupted lives."
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“Ms. Feiffer’s script allows the characters to engage in repeated volleys of assault and disarmament that result in millennial bravura being transformed into an intergenerational truce...Under Trip Cullman’s judicious and incisive direction, Mr. Lochtefeld and Ms. Behrs both deliver convincing and authentic performances each capturing the complexities of their characters’ lives...Halley Feiffer’s new play is worth the visit."
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"There are no great revelations or glorious resolutions, no startling insights, but the path we see them taking as the play unfolds, and the past that we learn along the way, feels largely credible...There is much humor in the play; what works best is what feels earned rather than imposed. Trip Cullman directs at a brisk pace, getting fine, honest performances out of the four-member cast...The funny thing that happens at 'A Funny Thing Happened…' is not just laughs, but life."
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"Feiffer...strains mightily to create an offbeat rom-com about a mismatched pair of losers who meet cute in a hospital room where their mothers are being treated for ovarian cancer; it’s a heavy lift...Feiffer’s black comedy, which tries to wring comedy out of the dire misfortune of a loved one’s suffering by laughing in the face of death, has noble intentions. The characters she creates to navigate the situation, however, are neither interesting nor amusing enough."
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"Feiffer’s distinctive if uncertain play is a romantic comedy on the surface only. Underneath, it is about how anyone copes or doesn’t with the everyday traumas and tragedies of life...It’s as though Feiffer wanted to write a comedy, but keeps being drawn back to drama...What the play does best is to show the varied ways its characters mask difficult emotions, mostly unsuccessfully...Under Trip Cullman’s direction, Behrs is perhaps somewhat too eager to prove her stage bona fides."
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"If you are not offended by the idea of a black comedy with cancer jokes, raunchy language and sexual situations set in a hospital room with two cancer patients lying silently in their beds, you are in for some very funny moments...The ending is weak. Nevertheless, the dialogue is snappy, the acting is fine and the attempt by playwright Feiffer to try something different is admirable...Those not turned off by the play’s premise are likely to enjoy themselves for most of the time."
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"The message, I suppose, is that needy people can be rich or poor and there’s someone to love the most unlovable. More interesting, potentially, are the mothers—including the always-formidable Lisa Emery as a worn-out, nasty single mom, and Jacqueline Sydney, who never speaks but whose expressions suggest she hears everything. I would have preferred to hear what she has to say."
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“A dark and often funny look at some highly unlikely bedfellows in a cancer ward...One of Feiffer’s favorite themes happens to be a running thread here: the importance of parent-child communication and the roadblocks that get in the way of achieving that...While the play sometimes strains, Feiffer deserves such a pat for giving a healthy edge to a potentially sitcom situation.”
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"'A Funny Thing…' takes a very sensitive topic and flips it around to be humorous and dark, but also compassionate with in-your-face realism...It shouldn’t work, this dialogue-heavy performance on a single set, with minimal characters and walking room, but it does. 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City' isn’t a show for everyone, but it’s definitely a show everyone should see."
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