Adopt A Sailor

A Review By A Fan Who Was There

I was so glad I went. It was a terrific program, although I left right after "Adopt a Sailor" - there were a couple of skits left after Sam's. (This was part of the production Brave New World.-Ed.)

Sam and Amy Irving played an affluent Upper West Side couple. Liev Schriber played the sailor, who Amy 'adopted' for a day - a "darling" idea which she got from one of her affluent friends. Sailor came over for tea and lunch. Sam played a Columbia history professor, very cynical and sardonic. Amy ran a "darling" little boutique. Sam and Amy were at each other's throats with caustic comments, each berating the other for their very different individual responses to 9/11, while Sailor, who was a shy, country boy, sat quietly, not knowing what to say. After a particularly nasty exchange, Amy said to Sailor, "This is how people talk when they don't love each other anymore." As Sam and Amy glared at each other after a long pause, Sailor got up quietly to leave. He made a comment about how he was on a carrier in the Indian Ocean when the towers were attacked. He spoke about how, after he and his shipmates had digested all the awful details and listened to all the news reports, they stood on deck that night, comforted by the fact that despite what had happened, the same stars they had gazed on the night before were still in the sky. And that was a very good thing. Amy and Sam looked at each other, and suddenly looked very ashamed of themselves for being so petty. And that was the end. It only lasted about 15 minutes. All of the skits were 15 minutes or less.

Sam looks younger in person than he does on TV. He was wearing jeans (surprise! surprise! HA!), a denim shirt and a tweed jacket. He came up into the audience during some of the other skits and watched. I watched HIM instead of the skits! He has such presence. That silvering hair only adds to it. And when he walks he just flows like water!

After watching Ethan Hawke, Cynthia Nixon, Fisher Stevens, Edie Falco, Stanley Tucci and the other performers who were on stage prior to Sam, Sam just blew them all away. He is absolutely wonderful on stage. I hope the others watched Sam's performance because he is a marvelous example for the rest of them! He has such range and is so wonderfully talented. I could tell that he enjoyed himself immensely last night.