Critic at Leisure

Awards and rewards: James Lecesne is a winner

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At 9 a.m. on Monday, this critic was at her computer poised to read the results of our Outer Critics Circle awards winners. One of the most thrilling moments in my long-time “Critic-At-Leisure” column was the day I arrived at the then South Shore Record office in Hewlett to find a very official look letter. Its opening sentence was Dear Tony Voter!

It was a privilege that lasted for decades until gradually that reward began to reflect the choice to increase the number of theater producers, promoters and their ilk who not only backed New York productions but fostered their development in theaters across the country or brought Broadway successes to their home base. Tony voters who are critics in 2016 have, I’ve read become limited in participation.

In New York and environs the New York Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle have become two of the valued organizations whose members bestow our own awards to Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-off Broadway productions. And while it was disappointing that the New York Times devoted only a very limited notice of the OCC awards as I read the nominations posted by the OCC, the immediate occasion that set me cheering and applauding out loud was coming upon the wonderful news that James Lecesne’s magnificent one-man play “The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey” had won the Outer Critics Award for Outstanding Solo Performance!


No award in memory has been more deserved than this exquisitely written and performed heart-breaker than Lecesne’s tale of the disappearance of 14-year old New Jersey student Leonard Pelkey.

With all the characters in this shattering tale played by Lecesne, who morphs from a detective who takes the report of the youth’s disappearance, to the beauty salon owner, Ellen Hetle (who brings that news accompanied by her 16-year –old daughter) great characters inhibit this ingenuous, gripping drama. Ellen has been raising the boy since his mother’s untimely death — and tells the detective that Leonard is gay — but also a most unique young man. He enjoys sharing tips on dressing with Ellen’s clients, has cut up his flip-flops to make platform rainbow sneakers and furthermore told his drama teacher he must have wings to play sprite Fairy Ariel in “The Tempest.”

Leonard’s independent behavior has made him a target for local hoodlums. While we never see more than a blurred photo of the youth, one of his sneakers — mud covered — is found. And as we come to appreciate Lecesne’s interest (as detective) in the youth’s disappearance so do members of the town. But it’s Lecesne’s growing interest, involvement and compassion in his search for the missing boy, and its eventual impact on the town’s youth that found me wiping away inconsolable tears in the final 15 minutes of “The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey;” tears that wouldn’t stop coming.

Hard lessons have been learned, and one is brought to tears for both the detective’s new awareness and understanding, the obviously murdered boy, and a world where individuality is often mistaken for “strange.”

No adjectives can capture Lecesne’s deep understanding of human nature, and the need to look anew at our own judgments. One can only hope that that the Outer Critics Circle Award — and equally hopeful — a coming Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance will lead to a soon revival of the playwright/actor/psychologist, humanist’s awesome classic for our times. Bravo!

Go online for the complete lists of the 2016 OCC awards, and make a beeline for those plays still running. Highly recommended are “The Humans,” “Dear Evan Hansen (magical and soon moving to Broadway), “Bright Star,” “Long Day’s Journey into,” “On Your Feet,” “She Loves Me,” “American Psycho the Musical” (not to my taste), “The Father” (Yes, Frank Langella did win the OCC award for best performer by an actor in a play; “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Color Purple” and “Waitress.”

And it should be shared that special OCC awards were presented to Lincoln Center’s magnificent “The Royale” and James Houghton’s superlative Signature Theater Company.