Another Day on Willow St.

Description
*** [THREE STARS] It's the end of summer 2001 in Frank Anthony Polito's drama about two Brooklyn Heights couples struggling to find balance in their hectic, Starbucks-fueled lives. (The cast is on cell phones for literally half the performance.) Stacy (Pamela Sabaugh), eight-months pregnant and bored out of her mind after quitting her fast-paced publishing job, sits on a bench at the Brooklyn Promenade and stares at downtown Manhattan, where her husband, Ian (Fred Backus), is an investment banker. Ian works nonstop, trying to carve out a life for his wife and soon-to-be-born daughter, Lahna--though Stacy feels he is abandoning her at a time when she needs him most. At the bench, Stacy befriends Mark (Craig Bentley), a struggling gay actor in his thirties who has yet to come out to his parents despite a five-year relationship with Paul (to whom he refers as his "buddy"). Tending to his ailing mother, Paul (Polito) is desperate to fulfill her dying wish to see him get married, so he puts the pressure on Mark to tie the knot. Since this is late summer, 2001, and Ian is a Wall Streeter, it's not impossible to guess where the plot might be headed. But the play moves along steadily and occasionally amusingly, as both couples strive to work through their differences and ultimately come to the realization that it's best to live in the moment, because another day doesn't always come.--Stacey Hillegas, Office Coordinator