THE WHITE CHIP
by Sean Daniels
Directed by Sheryl Kaller
MCC Theater
Official Website
Reviewed by David Spencer
[I wrote most of what follows in 2019, when The White Chip made its off-Broadway debut at 59E59 with a 2/3 different cast. It’s one of those Zeitgeist coincidences that this show should cme around again, exactly as Days of Wine and Roses: The Musical is playing its much more immediate return engagement uptown. My reference to the original JP Miller teleplay and screenplay is likewise…I was about to say coincidental, but in fact, was probably inevitable.]
The White Chip is an addiction-and-recovery drama probably like no other, because while, in the grand tradition, it pulls no punches, it is also, in defiance of tradition, uproariously funny. Most of the time. It is also, often, horrifically uncomfortable. But that balance between addiction realities and painfully self-aware irony is the key to its, dare I say, theatrical magic. And there’s one other distinguishing feature; the road to recovery takes an unexpected turn…just when you think that, after all the genre-busting, we’re back to JP Miller Days of Wine and Roses case-history basics (brilliant for its time, get me not wrong, but it’s six decades later), stifle my disappointed yawn, we go through a different door. And that’s what brings it home.
To particularize what that different door is would constitute an enormous spoiler—perhaps even if you’ve had your own experience with addiction or watching a loved one suffer it—but I’ll say this much…the recovery philosophy is utterly non-denominational. Even an atheist can give over to a higher power sans compromise. The ride is about the discovery. And the, ahem, sobering realization that right place, right time, right guidance can have as much to do with serendipity as desire.
The autobiographical script by Sean Daniels is performed by three actors. There’s Steven, the author’s avatar (Joe Tapper), a roaringly successful director and regional artistic director, for whom roaring alcoholism seems to go hand-in-hand with success…for a time; and there’s a man (Jason Tam) and a woman (Crystal Dickinson) who play everybody else.
There are numerous ways to stage a script like The White Chip, which is equal parts narrative, equal parts cameo scenes, but Sheryl Kaller has cannily chosen to do it with a lot of chalkboarding on a center, flappable blackboard, and available recurring props on shelves off to either side. This allows for a combination of informational grounding combined with quick motivic visual cues, which keep everything that’s going on clear, even as the story whips along.
And did I say it was funny? Arguably the most important thing about all this is that Ms. Kaller and her cast have a knack for humanist comedy; they know where the funny lives and they know how to deliver it without seeming like they know they’re delivering it. It’s all played for real stakes; a far rarer gift than you might think.
And that’s what gives The White Chip permission to be touching as well.
So go and laugh and cry and learn a few things that may surprise you. Or even help you.