In Providence, Rhode Island, habitually widowed Atalanta (Sherie Rene Scott) pays a visit to her second-rate lawyer Barry Dragonetti (Jason Alexander). Intending to settle her latest husband’s affairs, this larger-than-life Greek tightwad quickly becomes a nightmare for her cheesy, self-aggrandizing attorney. Add Barry’s impossible Croatian mother (Mary Testa), a dash of current politics and a couple of opportunistic young lovers, and you have in hand a recipe for comic combustion. This feisty romantic comedy could only come from John Patrick Shanley, the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the MTC hits Doubt and Outside Mullingar, and the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Moonstruck.

Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes, with no intermission

“I need an objective. I need an arc. Life is short. I don’t want bitterness to eat me alive.” While this line is spoken by the lovelorn Atalanta early on in The Portuguese Kid, MTC’s new John Patrick Shanley work recently extended by popular demand through December 10th at New York City Center Stage I, it could easily apply to any one of the four main characters at any point in the play. After all, each spends the better part of its 90-minute duration scrambling to find a meaning in life, an inkling of existential worth and fulfillment, so as not to end up embodying the person Atalanta describes. Trouble is, as these stories often go, they seem to be looking for it in the wrong places. No doubt an amusing conundrum to watch a singular character overcome, but with all four of them in the midst of it all concurrently? Secrets are revealed, tensions run high, lines are crossed, food is flung and chaos inevitably ensues. And therein lies the comedy gold. The plot follows second-rate Rhode Island lawyer Barry Dragonetti (a sensational Jason Alexander) as he attempts to settle an estate deal for his childhood friend, the high-strung and perpetually widowed Atalanta Lagana (a spot-on Sher …Read more