'Hold on to Me Darling' review — Adam Driver plucks guitar strings and the heartstrings
Read our review of Hold on to Me Darling off Broadway, a drama by Kenneth Lonergan starring Academy Award nominee Adam Driver as a grieving country singer.
Fame changes a lot of things for those who achieve it, but some remain the same. Celebrities have hometowns, sometimes tiny and remote ones, and families. They love. They grieve. They screw up. In other words: Stars, they're just like us.
Right?
That's the question that sets Kenneth Lonergan's Hold on to Me Darling into motion. Its central character is Clarence "Strings" McCrane (a drawling, commanding Adam Driver), a country star who loses his mother and impulsively decides he'll move back to his Tennessee hometown and give up fame (simple as that!) in her honor.
On paper, Strings is a textbook out-of-touch celebrity who discusses bringing Janet Jackson home to Mom as though he were discussing the weather. But under Neil Pepe's direction, Driver imbues the character with a pathos that, misguided as his motives may be, makes his desire for normalcy feel genuine and sympathetic — and feels particularly topical as debates over how much privacy celebrities can reasonably ask for have dominated recent public discourse, particularly online.
A brief but striking moment: Not five minutes after Strings tells his cousin Essie (Adelaide Clemens, sweet as apple pie) he learned of his mother's death while putting on his space suit for a movie shoot, he learns she's a kindergarten teacher and reacts with awed delight, the way a teacher might normally react to their cousin being a celebrity. Never mind that Strings probably should have known Essie's occupation (and her face, and her last name) already — he believes it's not too late to make a change, and we want to believe it, too.
The same can't be said for the other characters in Hold on to Me Darling. Strings meanders aimlessly through Lonergan's dense play, ping-ponging between conversations with various people who all want different things for him. Nancy, a masseuse in an unhappy marriage, poses as his ticket to the simple life while not-so-secretly chasing his fame. (Heather Burns slyly peels back the character's layers.) Jimmy (Keith Nobbs, with impeccable comic timing), Strings's "personal assistant, best friend, travelin' companion — and biggest fan," knows no other way to interact with Strings other than to dote on him. And both Essie and Strings's half-brother, Duke (a sharp CJ Wilson), know much better than the singer that Strings the celebrity and Strings the man will never be separate.
Not to mention that Strings, as Duke wisely points out, is "reorderin' [his] life to suit [his mother] now she's gone." It quickly becomes clear that he doesn't truly know what he wants for himself. The grass isn't greener on any side, for anyone. The ending, in which Strings reunites with his remaining parent (Frank Wood, always reliable), is supposedly meant to finally ground him a bit. Pepe's production doesn't quite stick the landing, but it's a testament to Driver's performance, and that of the entire ace cast, that I was left wanting to keep going on Strings's journey, to know where he lands.
Hold on to Me Darling summary
When Strings McCrane, a world-famous country singer, returns to his Tennessee hometown for his mother's funeral, he decides he's going to move back there — movie deal and world tour be damned — and live the honest working-class life his mom always wanted for him. Just about everyone in his circle has other ideas. His assistant, Jimmy, and partner, Nancy, hold him up on a pedestal of fame and aim to keep him there. Meanwhile, family members Duke and Essie are supportive of Strings's new lease on life, but they're all too aware that abandoning fame doesn't happen in a snap. Either option comes with, well, strings.
Hold on to Me Darling premiered off Broadway in 2016 under Pepe's direction. Clemens, Nobbs, and Wilson also reprise their roles from that production.
What to expect at Hold on to Me Darling
Though the listed running time is 2 hours and 45 minutes, expect to be at the Lucille Lortel Theatre for a little over 3 hours. Hold on to Me Darling could stand some trimming, but luckily, the seats are comfortable, the script regularly funny, and the performances animated. So, too, is Walt Spangler's detailed, rotating set — 3 distinct compartments of performance space morph into more than double that number of locales. A hotel room circles back around a few scenes later as a funeral parlor; a ramshackle Tennessee living room rearranges into a rustic country store.
The sparsely decorated Lortel, which evokes a small-town movie theatre (it used to be one) is an apt venue for Hold on to Me Darling and its rural sensibilities. But also: Take note of the metal stars on the sidewalk in front of the theatre, honoring playwrights in the style of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Again, a reminder — celebrity is inescapable.
What audiences are saying about Hold on to Me Darling
- "Saw 'Hold On To Me, Darling' yesterday. Walked out of the Lortel ten feet off the ground. Driver is pitch-perfect and the play has so much more resonance to me now." - X user @jkmcyrano1
- "Frank Wood showed up in the last scene and showed us some actual acting, but then it just ended without resolving any of the central conflicts." - Mezzanine user Sara Hardwick
- "no spo1ler review of Hold on to me darling: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" - X user @macksani
- "It's not a great play nor a good play, but it's a play with a very famous actor and has some good moments. I recommend it for the experience." - Show-Score user Director's Lab
- "Kenneth Lonergan, if you are reading this, please make a film adaptation of Hold On To Me Darling featuring Adam reprising the role of Strings McCrane." - X user @mytbrisgrowing
Read more audience reviews of Hold on to Me Darling on Show-Score.
Who should see Hold on to Me Darling
- Fans of Adam Driver's past stage and screen work will relish the opportunity to watch him perform up close in the intimate, 299-seat Lortel.
- Hold on to Me Darling isn't a musical, but if you like country music, you'll enjoy the snippets of it peppered throughout the show. Driver even plays guitar briefly on stage.
- If you're interested in stories about the dark side of fame, you'll appreciate how Hold on to Me Darling inventively probes that theme. Lonergan explores how the aftermath of fame, and the pursuit of normalcy, has its complications, too.
Learn more about Hold on to Me Darling
Come for the star showcase, stay for the drama. Hold on to Me Darling is a compelling study of small-town (and big-time) characters, one that gives familiar themes of grief, ambition, dissatisfaction, and self-discovery a fresh tune-up.
Photo credit: Hold on to Me Darling. (Photos by Julieta Cervantes)
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