''Meteor Shower'' is a 2016 play written by Steve Martin. The play, a comedy, is set in 1993 in

Ojai, California Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

. It premiered on Broadway in 2017. Amy Schumer received the production's sole

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

nomination.

Productions

The play had its world premiere at the

Old Globe Theatre The Old Globe is a professional theatre company located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California. It produces about 15 plays and musicals annually in summer and winter seasons. Plays are performed in three separate theatres in the complex, which i ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, California in August 2016. The director was Gordon Edelstein with the cast that featured Alexandra Henrikson,

Josh Stamberg Joshua Collins Stamberg (born January 4, 1970) is an American actor. He was regular cast member in the Lifetime comedy-drama series ''Drop Dead Diva'' from 2009 to 2012, and later had recurring roles on '' Parenthood'', '' The Affair,'' and ''Wand ...

Greg Germann Gregory Andrew Germann ( ; born February 26, 1958) is an American actor who is known for playing Richard Fish on the television series '' Ally McBeal'', which earned him a Screen Actors Guild award. He also is known for his roles as Eric "Rico" ...

as Norm, and Jenna Fischer as Corky.McNulty, Charles
"Steve Martin's 'Meteor Shower' feels like a Hollywood welfare case"
''Los Angeles Times'', August 9, 2016 The play then ran at the

Long Wharf Theatre Long Wharf Theatre is a nonprofit institution in New Haven, Connecticut, a pioneer in the not-for-profit regional theatre movement, the originator of several prominent plays, and a venue where many internationally known actors have appeared. Fou ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

in October 2016. The director was again Gordon Edelstein, with the cast that featured

Arden Myrin Arden VanAmringe Myrin () is an American actress and comedian. Myrin was a cast member on the Netflix series '' Insatiable'', playing the role of Regina Sinclair, and starred in the world premiere of Steve Martin's play ''Meteor Shower'' at the ...

as Corky, Patrick Breen as Norm, Josh Stamberg, and Sophina Brown. The play premiered on Broadway on November 1, 2017 in previews, officially on November 29, 2017 at the Booth Theatre. Direction is by

Jerry Zaks Jerry Zaks (born September 7, 1946) is an American stage and television director, and actor. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Drama Desk Award for directing ''The House of Blue Leaves'', ''Lend Me a Tenor'', and ''Six Degree ...

, with scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costumes by

Ann Roth Ann Bishop Roth (born October 30, 1931) is an American costume designer. She has designed the costumes of various prominent films, and has been nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, winning twice for; ''The English Pa ...

and lighting by Natasha Katz. The original Broadway cast features Keegan-Michael Key as Gerald, Amy Schumer as Corky,

Laura Benanti Laura Ilene Benanti (née Vidnovic; born July 13, 1979) is an American actress and singer. Over the course of her Broadway career, she has received five Tony Award nominations. She played Louise in the 2008 Broadway revival of '' Gypsy'', winni ...

as Laura, and Jeremy Shamos as Norm. This marks Schumer and Key's Broadway debuts. The play closed on January 21, 2018.

Plot

In 1993, a meteor shower occurs in

. Corky and her husband Norm invite another couple for dinner, Gerald and Laura. Over the course of the evening, Gerald and Laura are belligerent and aggressive.

Critical response

Charles McNulty Charles McNulty (born 1966) is the chief theatre critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' newspaper and a recipient of Cornell University's prestigious Nathan Award for dramatic criticism, who, himself, served as chairman of the Pulitzer Prize dr ...

, reviewing the play at the Old Globe, San Diego, wrote: "''Meteor Shower'' plunges into the absurd without establishing a philosophical grounding for the mania. It's sitcom Ionesco crossed with a ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' parody of

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), '' The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), '' A Delicate Balance'' (1966) ...

's '' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf''?". Allison Adato of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' reviewer wrote of the Broadway production that ''Meteor Shower'' is "a very funny play. Keening-like-a-howler-monkey funny. Design-a-new-cry-laughing-emoji funny. What it is not, however, is a substantial play...All four actors enjoy a share of the silliness, which they put over ably in black-out scenes that tell and retell variations of the evening’s events. But the night belongs to Schumer, her timing, her mugging, her deftness with some extremely ridiculous gags."Adato, Allison
"Amy Schumer delights in Steve Martin’s new comedy 'Meteor Shower': EW review"
ew.com, November 29, 2017

Awards and nominations

2018 Original Broadway Production

References

External links

Internet Broadway database
{{Steve Martin Broadway plays Plays by Steve Martin Comedy plays Plays set in California 2016 plays