When’s the last time you have seen a Broadway play or musical? According to a common stereotype of Broadway, their productions are over-the-top shows that lure in tourists who spend hundreds of dollars on back-row balcony seats.

Unfortunately, Broadway has indeed become more commerce-focused rather culture-centered. Generally, the only locals to attend these productions are the theater fanatics who see past the crowded streets, the touristy shops, and the great expenses.

However, I recently decided to brave through all those irritants and see the Broadway play This is Our Youth.

This is our Youth has plucked and combined the most awkward actor, Michael Cera, with the biggest bad boy in Hollywood, Kieran Culkin, and the quirkiest of quirky bloggers, Tavi Gevinson, to produce a wonderfully uncomfortable production.

The play takes place in New York during its not-so-bright ’80s. The entire play is set in a character named Dennis’s walk-up apartment. Dennis, played by Culkin, is part drug dealer, part bad boy, and part sensitive guy. Warren, played by Cera, is an awkward misfit who has had a tough life, that is until he falls for the beautiful Jessica, played by Gevinson. Jessica and Warren have this inexplicable love that’s both sweet and awkward.

Wiki Commons Kieran Culkin in This is Our Youth
Wiki Commons
Kieran Culkin in This is Our Youth

Without giving too much away, this play moves past the classic Disney productions and the dramatic tragedies common to the Broadway stage. This is Our Youth provides a raw, honest, and vulgar view of the life of a couple of young New Yorkers trying to make it in the tough and sometimes dangerous city. It isn’t a simple black-and-white play with the villains and the angels. It’s a play that provokes thought and forces you to analyze each of the characters until you decide whether they are truly “good” or “bad” people — if you can even make that categorization.

The play officially opens on September 11th. For all you seasoned New Yorkers who have already lost that Broadway spirit, it’s not too late to get it back! Try to detach that touristy stigma that comes along Broadway productions because This is Our Youth is worth your while.

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