![]() ![]() The intimacy of the Golden Theatre keeps us close to these men for more than two hours, and watching them is thrilling.Īs the characters’ names suggest, Topdog/Underdog -which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 and has only grown in reputation since -offers an open invitation to be read allegorically, and Parks’s dazzling text gives you a lot to think about afterwards. He lacks the con-man confidence of his older brother, Lincoln, played by Corey Hawkins-who makes an unforgettable first entrance dressed as Honest Abe himself, in whiteface makeup, a strap-on beard and a stovepipe hat. In the deeply absorbing Broadway revival of Suzan-Lori Parks’s 2001 two-hander, Abdul-Mateen plays a would-be street grifter named Booth (or 3-Cards, as he aspirationally insists on being called) as the curtain rises, he is practicing his monte, but his card-sharp skills are dull. ![]() “Watch me close watch me close now,” says Yahya Abdul-Mateen II at the very start of Topdog/Underdog, as though anyone would want to look elsewhere. ![]()
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