So… who wants to take a trip to New York City to see Adam Driver do his best country music star impersonation?
If you’ve never been much of a fan of plays, you might change your mind after you hear that the talented Adam Driver is currently doing an off-Broadway play – and he’s playing a troubled, grieving country music star. I’m hoping that you just leaned in reading that, or maybe even tilted your head and audibly let out a, “Hmm.”
The play, titled Hold On To Me Darling, was written by Kenneth Lonergan. You might recognize that name (or at the very least find it familiar) because he’s the mind behind 2016’s Manchester By The Sea, which was a film that won all kinds of awards and landed Casey Affleck an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Lonergan’s play, Hold On To Me Darling, actually premiered off-Broadway that same year. Though it didn’t get as much attention as his film, it’s another story that navigates the complicated process of grief, only this time through the lens of a country music star. The play is described as:
“Strings McCrane, a country music icon who finds himself at a crossroads following the death of his mother. Abandoning superstardom, he moves back to his hometown in Tennessee in favor of the simple life.”
How about that premise, huh? Now pair that spectacular idea with the incomparable Adam Driver at the helm, playing Strings McCrane (great fake country music name, by the way). If you’ve seen Driver in literally any of his films, you likely know that he’s one of the best, and earlier reviews of his role in this play have stated that he shines in his role as Strings McCrane. The New York Times even said he was “too good” in the role, which has to be one of the best compliments an actor or actress can get.
Adam Driver is “too good” playing a country music star who embodies the clichés of celebrity in an Off Broadway revival of Kenneth Lonergan’s “Hold On to Me Darling,” our critic writes. https://t.co/TsKikyrimA
— New York Times Arts (@nytimesarts) October 17, 2024
The only downside is that, unless the play does so well off-Broadway that it gains enough momentum to be made into a motion picture (anyone still calling movies “motion pictures” nowadays?), the only way to see Driver in the role is to travel to New York City and buy a ticket to the show.
I’ll have to wait and see if the positive reviews keep pouring in before I do that, but I’ll definitely admit that I’m intrigued by Adam Driver in the role…
Adam Driver is a grieving country music icon in exclusive first-look photos of the Off-Broadway revival of 'Hold On to Me Darling,' opening Oct. 16 at Lucille Lortel Theatre. https://t.co/iiOBsjSzob
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) October 15, 2024
