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Daniel Beaty’s ‘Through the Night’ moves from Geffen Playhouse to off-Broadway

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‘Through the Night,’ the latest solo work by Daniel Beaty, has already seen productions at the Geffen Playhouse in L.A. and the Crossroads Theatre in New Jersey. Now the stage play has secured an off-Broadway engagement at the Union Square Theatre that will officially kick off Sept. 26.

The drama follows the character of Eric, a curious young man who works in his father’s health food store creating new kinds of herbal teas for the customers. His path intersects with other African-American men from vastly different backgrounds and social classes.

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Beaty, who penned the drama, plays all of the characters.

Charles Randolph-Wright, who directed the play at the Geffen and at Crossroads, is returning to stage the production in New York.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty gave the L.A. production a mixed review: ‘Drama slides into outreach in a manner that flirts dangerously with daytime television—both soap opera and issue-laden talk show.... It’s impossible not to cheer Beaty on his important mission. But it would be remiss not to urge this talented theatrical voice to be as conscientious about form as he is about content.’

A reviewer for the Newark Star-Ledger found a lot to like during the show’s run in New Jersey earlier this year: ‘A grown man imitating a child can often cause an audience to spurt out mocking laughter.... As it turns out, Beaty has a great many sharp perceptions to make about growing up and being black in America.’

Beaty’s other recent stage play is ‘Emergency,’ which ran at the Geffen in 2008 and at New York’s Public Theatre in 2006.

-- David Ng

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