'What Happened Was..." Off-Broadway review — dinner and a story with Corey Stoll and Cecily Strong
Read our review of What Happened Was..., a revival of Tom Noonan's 1992 play running in repertory with two other shows at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre.
Summary
- What Happened Was... follows a dinner between two coworkers who bond over being aspiring writers
- Their evening turns awkward and actors Corey Stoll and Cecily Strong skillfully ground the play's zaniness with their serious approaches to the material
- The show is recommended for fans of Strong on Saturday Night Live and fans of the play's 1994 film adaptation starring its own playwright
Tom Noonan’s What Happened Was... is not really a love story, not really a comedy of errors, and not really a sendup of office culture. Noonan borrowed elements of all for his 1992 play, now being revived by Audible Theater and Together at the Minetta Lane Theatre just two months after the playwright’s death. Led by TV stars Corey Stoll (House of Cards) and Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live), Ian Rickson’s production is so grounded in sincerity that you almost forget just how strange the events of the night unfold.
Jackie (Strong), a legal executive assistant, has poured her heart and soul into prepping her apartment for the arrival of Michael (Stoll), a paralegal and wannabe writer on whom she’s long harbored a crush. Though their conversation goes through cycles of awkwardness throughout the evening, they are bonded by Jackie’s revelation that she, too, is a writer, and offers to read Michael one of her children’s stories, complete with mood lighting and just the right seat cushion. The play then segues into Jackie’s over-the-top narration of a comically bad story that doesn’t make any sense and can’t possibly be how Jackie wants to impress the man she’s invited home.
But Michael eats it up. He applauds Jackie’s story, but the unexpected praise doesn’t seem to be born of pity or an ulterior motive (if anything, he is shocked by her attempts at romance). Stoll’s Michael is stuck in a cycle of self-hatred and self-sabotage so pathetic that he can’t even process that someone else’s work might be just as lacking as his. To Michael, Jackie’s ridiculous story is the sound of someone doing something — anything — with their life. Never mind that the supposed children’s story isn’t age-appropriate and the supposed publisher is probably a scammer: Jackie wrote something, while all Michael has done is talk about writing something. He finds himself at the crossroads of the modern art adage “I could do that.” “But you didn’t” and the dating axiom “If he wanted to, he would,” and he breaks down. Noonan’s two-hander is perhaps less about romance than it is about writer’s block, an excavation of the artist as a bumbling fool caught in a puddle of mud.
Stoll’s commitment to Michael’s interiority keeps the play grounded as the tone shifts in and out of Jackie’s outlandish tale. While Strong certainly has the chops to keep the audience’s attention throughout Jackie’s rambling story of family secrets and go-go dancing down the Eastern seaboard, it could threaten the play’s integrity in lesser hands. Jackie’s heroine, Mini Minnie, is subjected to sexual assault in a manner akin to My Immortal, an infamous, probably-purposefully bad 2000s fanfiction. You laugh not because of the terrible things happening to Minnie, but because of how they’re happening — and does that make it all right?
When Minnie’s tormentor is revealed at the end of the story, her pain suddenly carries a more realistic weight; I feared, briefly, that Jackie was confessing that this actually was the story of her family, with whom she maintains a somewhat complicated relationship. Such a reveal would be a bit too much for a play that can’t quite decide if its zaniness is a bug or a feature. As it stands, Rickson’s production remains on firm ground because of the quality of its cast, particularly Stoll’s tortured artist.
What Happened Was... summary
Jackie, an executive assistant at a legal firm, has finally invited her office crush Michael to her apartment for dinner. What’s clearly a date to Jackie is murky for Michael, a socially awkward paralegal and law school dropout who’s prone to verbal faux pas.
Over a carefully reheated seafood dinner, Michael confesses he’s been writing a book about law and justice and has been secretly recording the firm's partners during closed-door meetings for years. Intrigued and eager to connect with a fellow writer, Jackie — with the help of copious amounts of wine — reads Michael one of her short children's stories. It's full of violent, outrageous twists that leave Michael feeling both inspired and inferior and may threaten the burgeoning romance between the coworkers.
What to expect at What Happened Was...
What Happened Was... runs approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes without an intermission. The play features discussions — some light-hearted and intentionally comedic, some darker — of murder, sexual abuse, and cannibalism.
The slight raking of the seating at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre may make it difficult for some patrons to see the actors at some points during the show. However, the theatre’s exposed brick wall and Brett J. Banakis and Christine Jones’ scenic design makes Jackie’s apartment feel cozy and homey, like they’re inviting the small theatre’s audience in for dinner with Michael.
What audiences are saying about What Happened Was...
Audiences have shared mixed responses to What Happened Was... on online forums like the theatre review and tracking app Mezzanine.
- Mezzanine user Juliet Grace Grochowski calls What Happened Was... “funny and witty” and advises that the Minetta Lane’s “front row was honestly not a bad view!”
- Mezzanine user Alexandra Aceves describes Noonan’s play as “80 minutes of wheels-spinning nothingburger.”
- Mezzanine user Derek Kahle says What Happened Was... is a “perfectly alright two-hander” in a three-star review.
Who should see What Happened Was...
- Fans of Saturday Night Live are undoubtedly already lining up to see Cecily Strong in a role that showcases her signature wit and also lets her shine with a softer sincerity.
- If you’ve seen the 1994 Sundance award-winning film version of What Happened Was..., starring playwright Tom Noonan as Michael, you may want to compare it to Audible’s revival.
- If you’ve enjoyed the other Ian Rickson-directed shows at the Minetta Lane — including Hannah Moscovitch’s Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes and last year's Creditors revival — you’ll find that What Happened Was... fits right in. (It runs in repertory with Sexual Misconduct and Ella Hickson's New Born this spring.)
Learn more about What Happened Was... off Broadway
Not all bonafide TV stars would choose a relatively short story at a relatively small theatre to showcase their talents, but perhaps Stoll and Strong’s choice reflects the candor they inject into their characters. Though it’s a little indulgent in its own goofiness, What Happened Was... is made stronger by the seriousness with which the cast approaches the material.
Photo credit: What Happened Was... off Broadway. (Photos by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)
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