Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Evan Sung ©2025  Tom Bloom, Karen Walsh

From the moment you step onto the sea blue carpeting in 59E59's teeny Theater C and see the warm, invitingly flowered wallpaper and simple dining table, you might believe you're in for a reaffirming time with a nice, all-American family. Well, the family part turns out to be true enough, but the demons consumed by the trio of lost souls in Samuel D. Hunter's terrific new play Jack's Precious Moment prevent them from becoming that most-envied of family units.

We begin with Bib (Eddie Kaye Thomas), an Idahoan male nurse who dons an oversized reindeer sweater in the middle of warm weather, and whose twin brother was recently decapitated in Iraq for all of YouTube to see. Fending off media advances with his crusty dad Jim (Tom Bloom) and baby-voiced, eccentric, ex-addict sister-in-law Karen (Karen Walsh), he decides on a whim to pay for a trip to Missouri for all of them, to visit the famed Precious Moments headquarters so that Karen can plan a memorial service for her late hubby and meet with the head of the company about a Jack figurine. The Christian family then slam headfirst into their temptations-booze, same-sex leanings, suicidal tendencies, airplane glue-and find that their dysfunction is actually whats binds them, but for how long being the burning question.

Evan Sung ©2025  Lucas Papaelias and Eddie Kaye Thomas

Directed with finesse by Kip Fagan-albeit with far too many scene changes-Jack's Precious Moment at first seems like another entry in the already overstuffed messed-up family sweepstakes. But for all of its crafty, often hilariously profane dialogue, Hunter is more interested in some bigger issues, notably how to reconcile your feelings of near-contentment when a loved one dies who wasn't so loved. Jack, the oft-discussed soldier thought of as a vile human being by his entire family, also seemed to be the glue holding this makeshift family together, and Hunter vividly explores their demise with gallows humor but also some unexpected heart.

Much of this can be found in the exchanges between Bib and a carnage-obsessed yet sensitive Missouri local named Chuck (played by a delightful Lucas Papaelias), who become an unlikely pair of soulmates who bond within the faulty carnival ride the latter fashions grand stories of violent mayhem about. This tangential relationship could have possibly been further fleshed-out, especially since it's so damn endearing and funny, but as is, it is a solid reminder of the delicate rhythms the play operates on, where a moment can veer from dark realism to gentle fantasy (most notably via an oversized Precious Moments life-size doll that greets Jim throughout).

A stellar cast really keeps this on track-in addition to Papaelias's superb turn, there is Walsh's finely tuned odd duck who is remarkably sympathetic given how stylized her portrayal is and Bloom's unfussy, grounded take on a father who cannot seem to release his inner anguish. But best of all is Thomas's Bib-the sane voice of reason wrestling with his ideas on God and how to express them-his self-control and expert underplaying are key to why this production eventually carries such a sting, and because of he and his fine fellow players, it adds up to something anything but precious.