The Roommate
Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow (Matthew Murphy)
By Fern Siegel (Posted 9/14/24)
Set in an airy Iowa City kitchen, The Roommate offers an interesting look at friendship and identity. Two women, Sharon (Mia Farrow) and Robyn (Patti LuPone), are in their third act. Shy divorced Sharon has resigned herself to invisibility. Robyn, a tough cookie from the Bronx, seems far more complex: a self-possessed vegan slam poet.
Her back story collides with Sharon’s existence in a novel way.
Now on Broadway at the Booth Theater, Jen Silverman’s Roommate has genuinely humorous moments, despite the many dated remarks. Is it that funny that someone comes from Idaho? Or that Sharon doesn’t recognize pot plants?
“Please don’t call them drugs; they’re medicinal herbs,” explains Robyn. “Herbs only become drugs when a capitalist economy gets involved.”
For two legendary actresses, there isn’t a lot of meat on this 100-minute bone. But the topic — the lives of older women once kids and husbands are gone — is worth addressing. The real pleasure is watching the accomplished duo deftly navigate emotional disconnects, regrets and discoveries. Each embodies her specific terrain to perfection.
Ironically, it’s estranged motherhood and questionable life choices that bind them. Nervous Sharon calls her fashion-designer son in Brooklyn far too often. Robyn wants to reconnect with her daughter — but her past is prologue.
Leather-jacketed LuPone can inject dramatic flair into the most ordinary action, such as stirring her coffee. That’s a counterpoint to Farrow’s timid Sharon, whose only connection is a friend’s “reading group,” which you can’t call a book club. Yet, it’s those very qualities in Robyn, dangerous, unknown and — shock to naïve Sharon — gay — that gives the shy Midwesterner a serious wake-up call.
The larger issue Roommate asks: Can we ever reinvent ourselves?
Robyn has a secret — and when Sharon learns it, the action shifts. This odd couple pairing isn’t a comedy. It’s a commentary on how casual relationships can jump-start old wounds and introduce new possibilities. And in those moments, both charming and touching, the play clicks.
The Roommate includes set and costume design by Bob Crowley, lighting design by Natasha Katz and sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman.
A clever addition by director Jack O’Brien is to have Farrow and LuPone receive their applause before the action begins. They step out on stage, their names flashed above, then the show begins. While they deserve their props, The Roommate is slim fare.