Gina Gionfriddo’s play is a sharp-witted comedy of modern sexual manners. American comedy writers have always been good with the one-liners and Becky Shaw, with its endless supply of wisecracks, is an excellent example of the genre.
In its totally unsentimental and characteristically cynical manner it plays to continuous laughter.
A newly-wedded couple, out of the kindness of their hearts, arranges a blind date which goes horribly wrong and creates a situation which is dire for everybody. David Wilson Barnes, a member of the original and highly successful Broadway production, plays Max, the date, who was an adopted child and deeply resents his sister getting married. He doesn’t go in for long term relations (three months at most) and his manner is always brusque and brutally honest. Wilson Barnes’s actual performance is always immensely likable, even when Max is being absolutely obnoxious.
Anna Madeley and Vincent Montuel are the newly-weds. Haydn Gwynne is the acerbic mother who advises her daughter that “honesty in marriage is a prescription for misery.” Daisy Haggard is Becky; dumped by her parents and mistreated by her previous boyfriends, she’s a walking disaster and scary with it, too. Peter DuBois’s admirably smooth production deserves an immediate transfer to the West End.