ARTS . Arts Picks

Miss Witherspoon

Through Jan. 9, $20-$24, Second Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-563-7500, newcitystage.org.


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Published: Dec 15, 2010

[ theater ]

Misanthropic suicide Miss Witherspoon, with an aura "like a tweedy brown coat," refuses to reincarnate: "It's scary down there," she complains about Earth, "and painful." In New City Stage Company's Philadelphia première of Christopher Durang's Miss Witherspoon, it's also funny. Miss W. (Julie Czarnecki) hides in atheists' heaven, but her spiritual guide (Indika Senanayake) insists she learn from life. The vulnerability Czarnecki adds to Miss W.'s crankiness (several reincarnations end with gruesomely hilarious suicides) gives director Ryder Thornton's production an edge that balances a sometimes awkward mix of comic absurdity and religious (and un-religious) pontification. Consider Miss Witherspoon an antidote to holiday treacle: It's the anti- It's a Wonderful Life.

Through Jan. 9, $20-$24, Second Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-563-7500, newcitystage.org.

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