‘I Need That’ Broadway Review: Danny DeVito Steals Laughs From A Junk Pile
deadline.comClutter – physical, emotional – is the subject of Theresa Rebeck’s new Broadway play I Need That, a comedy-drama that star Danny DeVito works mightily and with increasing futility to stuff with laughs and meaning.
Co-starring DeVito’s daughter Lucy DeVito and Ray Anthony Thomas, I Need That (as in, Hey, Don’t Throw That Away) takes a thin premise – a hoarder (Danny DeVito) lives amidst a house-full of life’s detritus in an unwinnable attempt to hold onto the past – and crams it with repetition, filler and character developments that are either predictable or unconvincing.
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel – who directed Rebeck’s much better Bernhardt/Hamlet in 2018 – the Roundabout Theatre Company world premiere production of I Need That, opening tonight, is, at best, a decent enough excuse to see the great comedian of Taxi and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia live and in person.
His grieving, lonely Sam is an ostensibly more lovable variation on his bulldog Louie De Palma or no-limits Frank Reynolds, even as he commands much the same whirlwind, scene-stealing center of all attention.
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