Like Sabbath’s Theater, which opened off-Broadway on the very same night, Broadway’s I Need That sports a cast of three, runs a little over 90 minutes with no intermission and focuses on a late-middle-aged male protagonist facing serious issues of mortality and the quality of his relationships. Dig a little deeper, though, and the two are worlds apart. Sabbath’s Theater is messy and uneven but sometimes brilliant; Theresa Rebeck’s I Need That (presented by Roundabout Theatre Company at the American Airlines) is warm, fuzzy, and all wrapped up by the final curtain like a comforting holiday gift
In I Need That, wildly funny and touching TV star Danny DeVito stars as Sam, a 70-ish retiree buried under mountains of possessions he refuses to throw out. His daughter Amelia (Devito’s real-life child Lucy) and best friend Foster (Ray Anthony Thomas) encourage Sam to clean up his New Jersey house or the fire department will condemn it and force his eviction. But Sam has an intimate and profound connection with each of his items ranging from a set of Bingo tiles to a do-it-yourself TV set to a guitar signed by a famous rock star to a set of ancient board games. DeVito delivers these tales with a sweet tenderness and charm. Like Sam, Amelia and Foster each have their own issues with their homes, making them more than peripheral witnesses to his dilemma. The younger DeVito and Thomas give both characters depth and resonance.
Sam is not a “lost soul” like the actual hoarders featured on the famous reality TV series. Evidently his kitchen is immaculate (what we can see of it), he changes his clothes and bathes every day and there are no dead animals buried underneath his piles of knickknacks. But his psychological realization that he must part with his treasures is arrived at a little too easily. After blindly clinging to them for much of the play, he suddenly has an “ah-ha” moment after a hilarious solo round of the board game Sorry which devolves into a rage-filled rant against his cruel, now alienated siblings (brilliantly enacted by DeVito in a tour de force turn, taking turns for four different color players).
Rebeck is a prolific craftsperson, boasting over 20 NYC productions of her work (five of them on Broadway). She knows how to structure a play, introduce conflict and deliver a satisfying resolution. But she does not deliver uncomfortable truths here; instead, she sells Hallmark moments, eliciting “awws” from the audience at the appropriate tender moments. There’s nothing wrong with a touchy-feely show, but I Need That lacks the aching pain of real-life hoarders. That’s not the play’s mission and it succeeds in its limited goals. Director Moritz von Stuelpnagel delivers a tight, precise staging, as neat as Sam’s house is cluttered. Alexander Dodge designed the elaborate set with a literal avalanche of believable items piled everywhere.
