With Off-Broadway’s ‘The White Chip’ Opening Just After ‘Days of Wine and Roses,’ Theater Is on a Bender

It would seem that theater has gone on a bender. Last weekend saw the Broadway premiere of “Days of Wine and Roses,” a musical adaptation of the classic film and play tracing the downward spiral of an alcoholic couple. Now, a new staging of “The White Chip,” Sean Daniels’s rather lesser-known account of the drinking problem that nearly sabotaged his own career in theater and threatened his life, has opened off-Broadway.“White Chip” — the title refers to the color of the first chip given by Alcoholics Anonymous, to those either signing up or renewing their commitment to sobriety — returns with a starry production team: Noted stage and screen performers Annaleigh Ashford, Hank Azaria, and Jason Biggs are among the names listed, along with a well-known addiction recovery advocate, Ryan Hampton. Ms. Ashford’s husband, Joe Tapper, reprises his performance as Steven, the character based on Mr. Daniels, whom he played in a smaller New York production back in 2019. He’s joined here by two other Broadway alumni, Crystal Dickinson and Jason Tam, who juggle a variety of supporting roles; they’re directed by a Tony Award nominee, Sheryl Kaller, who has been with the play since its world premiere. Mr. Daniels, while an accomplished director himself — his credits include major regional and off-Broadway theaters, as well as artistic-director positions — is not as familiar a name, and “White Chip” hasn’t yet and likely won’t establish him as a major dramatist. Still, this journey of struggle and self-discovery winds up being more compelling and heartening than one might expect at first.Crystal Dickinson, Joe Tapper, and Jason Tam in ‘The White Chip.’ Matthew MurphyWe meet Steven as he takes his first drink, of beer, at the age of 12. A Mormon boy with a feisty mother and a preternaturally calm father — wittily represented by Ms. Dickinson and Mr. Tam — he is soon unsettling both parents with a string of booze-fueled misadventures. Yet Steven’s breathless energy and gift for glibness, deftly captured by Mr. Tapper, enable him to graduate college and enjoy a series of early professional successes.This progress is documented with an almost self-conscious breeziness, with the actors romping around Lawrence E. Moten III’s classroom-like set, sometimes scribbling on a chalkboard to make a point or for comedic effect. Steven confides how he sneaks his vodka into Gatorade and Diet Coke containers, desperate to keep up appearances as his artistic profile grows and he sustains, albeit with less enthusiasm, a long-distance marriage.The frantic enthusiasm that apparently makes our hero irresistible to his friends and colleagues soon grows tiresome, however, and his selfish disregard for others — particularly his dad, who develops a debilitating disease — is off-putting, to say the least. I was relieved by the time Steven finally, after seeming to hit rock bottom several times over, appeared to do so in earnest, and was ready to seek out help.This might have been the point at which “White Chip” devolved into something corny, as shows of this nature — light in texture but concerned with heavy subject matter — often do. Yet Mr. Daniels manages to accomplish something quite different, so that the play becomes, toward the end, almost as charming as Steven is ostensibly supposed to be.How does the playwright pull this off? I won’t deliver any spoilers, except to say that both science and God come up — perhaps the latter isn’t too surprising, given the introduction of Mormonism early on — and their inclusion is thoughtful, moving, and funny. Mr. Tam and Ms. Dickinson, who have each proved adroit in a range of parts by now, get to truly shine here, and Mr. Tapper is given some meatier material, which he handles with aplomb.Mr. Daniels also doesn’t spare his audience, or himself, some tough love. “You couldn’t stop drinking,” a fiery counselor played by a hilarious Mr. Tam tells Steven at one point, “because you don’t spend enough time doing things for other people.” By the time “The White Chip” concludes, so has its protagonist’s self-pity party — yet the play’s compassion lingers, delicately but surely.

With Off-Broadway’s ‘The White Chip’ Opening Just After ‘Days of Wine and Roses,’ Theater Is on a Bender

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