In Lincolnesque, a play written by John Strand and directed by Colin Smith, the art of lying for one’s country succeeds in fusing a deceptively light touch and inside-the-Beltway political humor with profoundly deep messaging that goes straight to the heart.
Lincolnesque’s timeliness hits the bullseye.
Brandon McCoy as Francis brings a boyish innocence to his delusional grandeur. … His character seems to grow in believability as the plot thickens … Michael Innocenti gives a great turn as Leo, the struggling speechwriter. … Innocenti roars like a lion but underneath is gentle as a lamb. Susan Marie Rhea’s Carla is everyone’s worst nightmare of the driven corporate bombshell hell-bent to succeed in the political arena at any cost. She plays this part to the hilt with high energy and sassy nerviness, but enough vulnerability to make you like her at least a little bit. Stan Shulman is Francis’s imaginary Secretary of War, a down-on-his-luck street peddler who doubles as Harold Daly, the wealthy owner of the building where Francis janitors. Shulman plays both with the street-smart confidence of a New Yorker and the ruthlessness of a Roy Cohn lookalike.
