About the Show

Retro Productions revives this biting and occasionally touching black comedy about three sisters whose father abandoned the family long ago, and whose mother recently passed away.

The Reardon sisters, now grown and all working in the New York City public school system, have come to a crossroads. Catherine and Anna still reside in the apartment where they grew up. Having barely survived a scandalous incident at school, Anna suffers a nervous breakdown. When Ceil, their older married sister, returns to try to commit Anna to an institution, the built-up resentments of the last decade are pushed to the forefront. Should Anna be committed? Does Catherine really need another cocktail? Who is strongest in this fight of wills?

Critic Reviews (4)

"Starts out shakily with an uncertain tone in Act I but gradually builds up a head of steam that leads to an explosive second half when the 'dark' overtakes the 'comedy'...The dialog is full of biting humor, which really needs to come out more in the performances...Where the performances grow and greatly improve is in the play's second half...An ambitious if imperfect play...The cast do best when they are focused on the efforts of the Reardon sisters to navigate their way through life,"
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“Playwright Paul Zindel is ripe for rediscovery. From the evidence of Shay Gines' riveting revival of 'And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little,' this tragicomedy now celebrating its 50th anniversary is Zindel's ‘Three Sisters,’ ‘Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ all rolled into one. The performances in this production are first rate and could not be bettered. Like those earlier plays by Chekhov, Williams and Albee, the ending of ‘Miss Reardon’ is absolutely shattering.”
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“Zindel’s evocation of a specific social milieu is masterful…Director Shay Gines doesn’t always get the rhythms of this world exactly right, though to be fair, the play itself tends to rehash the same points multiple times. But the show boasts some good performances…‘And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little' provides a challenge that this production doesn’t quite meet...New Yorkers of a certain age will definitely appreciate its portrait of a bygone era in the city’s history.”
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"It is not difficult to envision the connections between the late-1960s setting of Retro's newest revival, the darkly comic 'And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little,' and 2017's own tensions around race, gender, military conflict, and political upheaval...Complexity lends the play balance and nuance—none of the characters is entirely beyond reproach or without blemish...The production provides an engrossing, funny, provocatively relevant study of character and context."
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