The Portuguese Kid

The Portuguese Kid is a play written by John Patrick Shanley. The play starred Jason Alexander and Sherie Rene Scott. The play opened off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club on October 24, 2017.

Synopsis

In Providence, Rhode Island, habitually widowed Atalanta pays a visit to her second-rate lawyer Barry Dragonetti. Intending to settle her latest husband's affairs, this larger-than-life Greek tightwad quickly becomes a nightmare for her cheesy, self-aggrandizing attorney. Add Barry's impossible Croatian mother, a dash of current politics and a couple of opportunistic young lovers, and you have in hand a recipe for comic combustion.

Original cast

• Jason Alexander as Barry Dragonetti
• Sherie Rene Scott as Atalanta Lagana
• Mary Testa as Mrs. Dragonetti
• Aimee Carrero as Patti Dragonetti
• Pico Alexander as Freddie Imbrossi

Reception

The play received mostly negative reviews. Writing for The New York Times, Jesse Green said "Perhaps it would have been more convincing if Mr. Shanley hadn’t hired himself to direct. A strong countervailing force might have encouraged him to look beyond the sitcom laugh track — and might have informed him that his spice rack of gender and ethnic stereotypes (women are paradoxes; Puerto Ricans are firecrackers) has gone stale. The designers, all tops in their fields in other productions, might have found a less garish palette, too; “The Portuguese Kid” looks like a picture book designed for children with cataracts." While Isabella Biedenharn at Entertainment Weekly says "The Portuguese Kid makes for a wildly entertaining couple of hours of whip-smart banter — as long as you don’t expect much substance beyond that."