THE STORY: A dirty sexy suicide comedy. Three adult brothers are living together once again in their childhood apartment, struggling to redefine themselves while pursuing their desires and coping with the void left by their parents’ deaths. Drastic shifts in their dynamics occur after a neighbor named Stella becomes a part of their lives. A sweet and sour look at the illusions we have about what makes us happy—and what is within our power to change.
“THINGS WE WANT has to have the highest cool quotient of any show in town…[A] thickly whimsical comedy of despair…with sloppy drunk scenes, nervous breakdowns, self-lacerating monologues with poetical flourishes, and a battery of stinging quips. Mr. Sherman has a good ear for mantras of the obsessed…His latest play shares with his earlier works…an imaginative thoughtfulness in considering the urges to self-destruct and self-improve.” —The New York Times.
“The despair is quite riveting…a powerful and hilarious vision of a family that constantly struggles to survive in a world that has not been kind to them…all the characters benefit from Sherman’s clever, edgy writing. Sherman’s one-liners incite plenty of laughter, too…And then there’s the window—that constant, haunting reminder of the turmoil that envelops the room.” —Associated Press.
“The play is a kind of tone poem—with lots of whoopee-cushion laughs—about boys becoming men, and about the terror and humor of being born male at all…His brief stint as an actor has no doubt contributed to the pleasingly herky-jerky rhythms of his befuddled male characters’ speech—he knows how to make language sound urban-sharp, and musical.” —The New Yorker.
“[A] raucous, sentimental, quick-witted domestic comedy that takes a lot of familiar elements and makes them perilously enjoyable…[A] giddy, dissipated little tragic-comedy that moves like a sitcom but is hipper and sadder…His characters clearly know their way around bottles of Jack Daniels and more esoteric pharmaceuticals. The drugs of choice, however, are disillusionment and desire.” —Newsday. (NY)
“…[an] edgy dramedy about loss, longing and recovery…Sherman captures the rhythms and quirks of conversation…with bull’s-eye accuracy, whether it’s among brothers or between a man and a woman. Sherman covers a lot of ground in the two-hour play, which comes down to basics: Life has lumps and bumps. It’s no fluke how he neatly frames the play. It