Theater Review: A Second Act of God, Now With Sean Hayes
Jesse Green
June 6, 2016: As subversions go, you could hardly trump David Javerbaum’s An Act of God, which plays like a lay-’em-in-the-aisles one-man comedy despite being (as I wrote in my review of its limited run last year) “one of the most vehement takedowns of the deity ever to reach Broadway.” It’s still exactly that, though also something different, in the version that reopened tonight, once again directed by Joe Mantello, and starring Sean Hayes in the Role originally played by Jim Parsons. Except for a few topical references — to Hamilton, to Will and Grace, to the Jets instead of the Cubs — the script is unchanged; it still posits a God who, in order to announce some new policies to humanity, has come to Broadway (where the Jews are) in the form of a popular actor in white robes and sneakers. The new policies involve a revised set of ten commandments (“Thou shalt not tell others whom to fornicate”) and a universal reboot. God, you see, is unsatisfied with his creation, and also with himself.
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