There’s a whole lot going on in this show and big chunks of it work. Playwright Harrison Mooney introduces us to a musical family that looks a lot like the Wainwright/McGarrigles: the parents divorce, the gay son comes out and struggles with drugs, the mom gets cancer. Playing Jack Stackhouse, the narcissistic dad, Jeff Gladstone is dizzyingly charismatic and movingly ashamed. Mooney’s writing for the eccentric character is effective and Jack’s song “No Bleeding on the Bus”, which is about his daughter’s first menses, is hilarious—though brutal. Bryan Binnema wrote that song and others, including the simple and touching “Be At Home in Me”. Mooney gives several big issues such short shrift, though—the son’s coming out, incestuous sibling impulses, drug addictions, and the mom’s death—that, despite the efforts of a talented cast, the play’s world feels less than fully realized. 

At the Revue Stage on September 6 (8:15 p.m.), 9 (5 p.m.), 11 (10:40 p.m.), 12 (6:45 pm.), and 14 (1 p.m.)