Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Roommate depends utterly on the considerable energies of its stars, Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone, rooted as it is in the slightest of premises and an abundance of culture-clash clichés. The odd-couple pairing of naive Iowan and gruff New Yorker veers into some amusing late-bloomer misadventures, but remains remarkably meagre on character depth for a two-hander engaging two such talents.The bright kitchen of Sharon (Farrow) is the sole setting in Jack O’Brien’s traditional production, with a see-through house frame creating a Midwestern airiness through changing sky backdrops. On a clear day you might see forever, but Sharon, an affable divorcee, keeps her horizons limited, puttering about endlessly and attending the occasional book club. When leather-jacketed Robyn (LuPone) arrives as Sharon’s new housemate, this Bronx exile’s sarcastic deadpan and impatient step quickly throw into relief the complacency in the air; the long wire to Sharon’s wall-mounted phone comes to feel like an adult umbilical cord.Farrow returns to the stage for her first full-dress stage play since 1979, and some of the getting-to-know-you material in Jen Silverman’s 2015 drama could date from then. Sharon oh-mys and overapologises upon learning that Robyn is gay and vegan, and when she smokes pot for the first time with her. But things pick up as Sharon’s nosiness awakens her buried urge to try something new — and maybe become something besides a hovering mother to her son, a designer in New York. Robyn meanwhile might be seeking to hide and lay low in the same way that Sharon has for so many years.If The Roommate is about embracing or creating new roles for oneself later in life, it’s appropriate that Farrow bristles with colourful details in tackling Broadway anew. Sharon’s golly-gee voice and homebody shuffle become like a musical instrument in her hands, to great comedic effect. When Robyn reveals her past as a con artist — and inadvertently inspires Sharon — Farrow delivers the line “I don’t know” with three or four loopily expressive variations, conveying a mind that’s racing with possibilities. You half expect her farmgirl pigtails to fly up with excitement as she presses Robyn to share the tricks of her trade.LuPone smoothly tracks Robyn’s shift from condescension to admiration and even a little worry over Sharon’s newfound appetite for crime. But as effortlessly commanding as she can be, she seems at times to cede the stage to Farrow, and it can be hard to feel the full weight of Robyn’s chequered past. We get a peek at her desperation over her estranged family — she and Sharon do eventually bond as mothers — but not enough of the fiery independent spirit that must have driven her.It feels as if Silverman, author of the bold feminist roundelay Collective Rage, has here written a play for your parents, and the lengthy blackouts between the play’s scenes tend to smooth over any dramatic buildup. The Roommate is a perfectly fine play invigorated by two very fine actors, but, like Sharon, you might find yourself yearning for more — and especially more of the unknown.★★★☆☆To December 15, shubert.nyc/theatres/booth
