First Floor Theater I’M GONNA PRAY FOR YOU SO HARD Review

We are in the middle of a somewhat lived-in apartment. Not messy, but not spotless. Empty Chinese food containers and used plates are spread out over the table, as are a couple wine glasses and bottles. In the back of the room is a bookshelf with a wide-range of choices, including a hard-to-miss Broadway coffee-table book.

Ella and David are sitting at the table, deep in conversation. David has been monologuing about how to succeed in the theater business, and he offers his daughter a key piece of advice:

“All you need is one fan… that’s what I am for you kid.”

On the surface, this is a moment of love and support between a father and his daughter. However, what follows is a deep dive into a relationship that is far from simple, and the look of admiration that Ella gives her father in response to this comment is far more complex than meets the eye.

First Floor Theater presents Chicago Premiere of I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard

Written by Halley Feiffer, I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard follows Ella (Amanda Caryl Fink), an actress who just opened a play Off Broadway. David (Tim Kidwell), her father and a famous playwright, keeps her company as she waits for the reviews. The duo partakes in a night of drinking and drugs to pass the time, and as their inhibitions come down, truths rise to the surface. We soon discover that this is a complicated relationship with a long history of pain, and a daughter who wants nothing more than to make her father proud. Full of heartbreak and tension, Feiffer’s play offers a dark and brutally honest window into the impact that parents can have on their children, and what we may or may not intend to pass onto the next generation.

David spends much of his opening monologue lifting his daughter up and then immediately bringing her down through backhanded compliments – ones that made much of this opening night audience noticeably cringe in their seats. However, Glahn is careful to emphasize those sweeter moments that allow us to understand why Ella feels a complicated sense of love towards him.

At one key moment in the monologue, David begins to detail the “old Broadway” – the Broadway where an orchestra ticket was only $6. As he reminisces, he quotes old Broadway musicals, and even sings along. As he goes into West Side Story, he and Ella take turns singing bits of fan favorites including The Prologue, Jet Song, and Somewhere. Kidwell dances about the stage, snapping along to the Jet song and having a blast belting out the lyrics. As Ella joins the fun, she goes full out, standing in her seat and sharing this moment with her father. The scene offers a much-needed instant of hope, and Kidwell and Fink play the comedy of the moment to the extreme.

Gut-wrenchingly Honest

Despite those sweeter breaks in the storytelling, Feiffer’s play is a very clear portrayal of a broken and emotionally abusive relationship.

Throughout the beginning, David allows himself to go on and on about his path to success, and all Ella can do is smile and nod, urging him to continue. We as an audience see Kidwell punctuate his stories with sweeping gestures and long swigs of wine. At one key moment however, Ella makes a mistake – we see her respond with a simple “I know.” When David hears this, he stops and stares at her. At the realization that he has already told the story before, he threatens to leave, and Ella begs him to stay and continue. The language is brutal, but what adds to the tension even more are the moments of silence and eye contact in which nothing is being said, and yet everything from a very complicated history is coming out.

As an audience member, you may feel yourself lean in, unsure of where you want the scene to continue – should he stay and appease Ella? Or might his leaving actually save her? Feiffer breaks the concept of an addiction wide-open as we watch Ella continue to feed her father’s ego, and fail to stop him from knocking her down along the way.

Is Feiffer’s play an upper? Maybe not. But First Floor’s heartbreaking production is intimate and honest, making a story that certainly touched this writer.