SEX WITH STRANGERS now at Second Stage Theater

Here’s a play that doesn’t wait until the second act to heat up. Playwright LAURA EASON  delivers a play that SIMMERS and MATTERS!  Leggy and brainy Emmy Award winner ANNA GUNN (Breaking Bad) plays Olivia, a 40 something writer who was so burned by the badly-handled publication of her first novel, that she withdraws, teaches in a second rate school, and only writes for herself. And the whole new world of the internet, which now drives publishing, daunts her. We find her holed up at a Michigan B&B where, because of a blizzard, she’s alone, only guest, editing her newest novel.   Enter Tony Nominee, BILLY MAGNUSSEN, as Ethan Strange, a 20 something boy-toy, who made a big splash on the internet by writing blog posts in graphic detail of sex he had with strangers, which led to two best-selling books and a movie deal.  He has a gazillion online followers and is beginning his own online publishing venue.  “People are going to think I died,” he complains when he finds out there’s no WIFI.

He’s come knowing that Olivia would be here. A mentor/buddie/possibly ex-lover told him so. And on his mentor’s say-so, he read Olivia’s novel and thinks it’s brilliant. For all his success, he’d like to write like her someday.  And for all her distaste of his obnoxiousness and his cultivated notoriety,  they end up making the Kama Sutra come alive for us.

For a moment, because I had seen  Magnussen making love to Sigourney Weaver in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,  it was like deja vu all over again, as the great Yogi Berra said.  But I got over that quickly and was pulled into the mounting reveals (and the mountings).

Pitch-perfect directing by DAVID SCHWIMMER,  SEX WITH STRANGERS,  keeps us spellbound as we try to unravel who the characters really are and what they want, and how they will go to hell and back to get it.

Tickets are available by calling SECOND STAGE BOX OFFICE: 212-246-4422 or by visiting http://2st.com/shows/current-production/sex-with-strangers

SEX WITH STRANGERS is NOW PLAYING through August 31rst  at the TONY KISER THEATRE
305 WEST 43RD ST. just west of  8TH AVE.  Tues-Thurs. 7:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. 

$30 UNDER YOUTH ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE. Proof of age must be shown at the box office.

Group tickets are available at a discount by phoning 212-246-4422.