SUSANNAH FLOOD BIRTHDAY AGE HOW TO

Instead of exploring what this familial legacy might mean or, as the play mentions, what the 'patterns' might be, Haidle just has exact beats and lines repeated, more like a broken record than a commentary on tradition. Quickly, though, this device grows tired. At first, it might make you smile as you see Ernestine continue birthday traditions and you notice various generations of characters repeating things older family members said in previous scenes. As time passes and generations go on, we see gestures and hear lines repeated over and over. Like several recent pieces this season, Birthday Candles (a Roundabout production at the American Airlines Theatre) has a particular interest in cycles. When a character dies, for instance, they take a dramatic breath and slowly exit the stage as a wind chime sound effect echos (the sound design, by John Gromada, is unforgivably cheesy). Often it is the things that slightly differentiate the tropes in this play that make it worse. For Broadway, though, it lacks sophistication and maturity, leaning into stock plot lines – high school sweethearts (John Earl Jelks, as Matt, even asks her to prom) getting married, fraught child/parent relationships (especially Christopher Livingston as son Billy), a cheating spouse, a long-awaited romance with a friend (the loveable Enrico Colantoni)–without adding anything new to them. Much like Our Town, and I say this with love, Birthday Candles would actually be a great play for a high school: minimal set, flexible casting, good roles, manageable length, nice themes. Noah Haidle's play, while an interesting idea, feels generic and overly sentimental, like a fanfiction version of Our Town (though it is inspired, in part, by a different Thornton Wilder play, The Long Christmas Dinner). Because of all the similarities and personal connections, Birthday Candles should have felt close to home and pulled on my heartstrings, but instead it just felt like a disappointing bite of bland cake overcompensating with achingly sweet buttercream frosting.

SUSANNAH FLOOD BIRTHDAY AGE HOW TO

Much like the central character, Ernestine (Debra Messing), I care deeply about family and traditions, and am a passionate baker–my mom even taught me how to bake my first cake.

In theory, this play seems almost designed for me. Throughout the play, she bakes a single birthday cake, just as her mom taught her and just as she teaches her children and grandchildren. Birthday Candles is very clear in its scope: 90 years in 90 minutes, every scene taking place on one woman's birthday.

Susannah flood birthday age