NEW YORK — Everything’s bigger in Texas — including the twists in John Lithgow and Douglas McGrath’s new off-Broadway play.
The duo insist that no matter how surreal some parts of “Everything’s Fine” may seem, the one-man show depicting McGrath’s whirlwind experiences as a teenager in West Texas is completely legit.
“It actually happened in real life,” Lithgow, who directed the show, told the Daily News. “I mean, honestly, people come up after the show and say, ‘Well, surely this can’t all be true?’ And it’s all true.”
Opening Thursday at the DR2 Theatre near Union Square, “Everything’s Fine” explores the life-changing arrival of a new teacher at McGrath’s school in Midland, Texas, when he was in eighth grade.
“This woman took an interest in me, which quickly became too much of interest,” said McGrath, who wrote and stars in the the play.
“Whatever that makes you think, it’s not what the show is. One of the great things about the show is that you think, ‘Oh, I know what this is gonna be. It’s gonna be ‘Last Picture Show’ or 'Summer of '42,' or one of those kinds of stories,’” he said. “And every time you think you know what’s going to happen, something else entirely shocking and different happens.”
The show was decades in the making for McGrath, 64, who got his start as a writer on “Saturday Night Live” in the early 1980s and received an Oscar nomination for co-authoring the 1994 film “Bullets Over Broadway.”
He initially envisioned turning the story into a piece of short fiction when he was in his 20s, and continued to consider the idea before writing it as a play during the COVID pandemic.
“The pandemic reminded me, and many of us, how lonely life can be in certain situations, and how damaging loneliness can be,” McGrath said. “It made me think of this teacher, who I think acted quite inappropriately, but to some degree out of loneliness.”
“Everything’s Fine” marks Lithgow’s first time directing a play since he led productions at regional theaters, including New York’s Phoenix Theater Company, more than 40 years ago.
Lithgow, who won Tony Awards for his performances in “The Changing Room” and “Sweet Smell of Success,” was connected to “Everything’s Fine” through the Lincoln Center’s artistic director, André Bishop, who was a mutual friend of McGrath.
“I certainly wasn’t ambitious to direct again. I didn’t even imagine it,” said Lithgow, 76.
“Doug sent it to me unsolicited,” said the Rochester native. “I’d never met him. I heard all about him and I loved his work, but I certainly was not going to direct him in a one-man show. But out of courtesy, I read the piece and it was such an amazing piece of writing. It was so play-able, I could simply imagine an audience being completely captivated by it.”
McGrath and Lithgow began preview performances of “Everything’s Fine” late last month and have been amused by the early responses.
“The vocal reaction of the audience to various of these surprises and shocks is like you’re at a taping of ‘The Jerry Springer Show,’” McGrath said. “I mean, gasping and people calling out like they do at a horror movie.”
Between all of the twists, McGrath considers his show “a warmhearted and quite amusing memoir of Midland” and his family.
Lithgow says you don’t have to be from Texas to relate.
“Every single person has some story from their 14-year-old year,” he said. “That’s a fulcrum year in their lives. Doug has courageously taken a deep dive into his story, and it’s extraordinary how absolutely everybody identifies with it.”
———
