A commanding John Krasinski takes on YouTube in compelling off-Broadway play

For 9 years, audiences grew to like John Krasinski’s mild-mannered Jim on “The Office”: His half-grins, dry confessionals, understanding glances at Pam. Jim was one in every of TV’s nicest guys.

And that’s what makes the puppy-dog actor’s casting in Penelope Skinner’s engrossing play “Angry Alan,” which opened off-Broadway Wednesday on the brand-spankin’-new Studio Seaview, so shrewd.

There’s instantaneous affection for Krasinski’s divorced dad character Roger, sight unseen. In director Sam Gold’s manufacturing — a rapid-fire slideshow of a person unraveling — he even lives in a sit-com-like shoebox home. 

After a brief honeymoon part, our devotion to Roger is repeatedly examined, tensely, because the normal-at-first dude grows darker and turns into obsessive about horrifying ideologies in a warped nook of the web.

Like watching a horrible information story, we quietly marvel if the identical unlucky destiny may befall somebody emotionally struggling in our personal lives. Freakier nonetheless, it completely can.

Roger has loads of causes to be sad. His teen son barely speaks to him, an artsy girlfriend has been distant after assembly new like-minded pals and he’s landed a job at a grocery retailer since getting let go from a profitable gig at AT&T. 

The downcast dad finds some solace in “Angry Alan,” a YouTuber who rails on-line about males being given the previous heave-ho by what he believes is now a women-run world. 

Initially, Rog’s takeaways from the channel are harmless sufficient: That extra males are depressed at present; that fewer are graduating from school; that being a supplier is an unnecessarily burdensome male stereotype. However the rhetoric quick turns violent, rage-filled and all-consuming. These early sparks of candy Jim are quickly snuffed out.

Roger nonetheless wrings out fun right here and there, however with growing discomfort. He pours all his time and money into “Angry Alan.” He’s glued to his display always and attends a messed-up conference with weirdos in Detroit. He stops paying baby assist. He retains damaging secrets and techniques from his girlfriend. Ultimately Roger’s gross jokes make us squirm in our seats. 

The ever-shifting half takes full benefit of Krasinski’s naturally optimistic vibe, which provides complexity to a chatty fellow who may simply be a ache within the ass. The actor additionally reveals an sudden magnetism that TV saved beneath a bushel. 

Krasiniski is a way more commanding stage performer than I ever thought he’d be, and he capably freight-trains via his almost-monologue whereas by no means sacrificing nuance or beats of the story. Gold, who theatergoers are likely to affiliate with pregnant pauses, does simply as effectively with Skinner’s gap-free sprint as he does with Annie Baker’s pot-head grazes.  

“Angry Alan,” to make certain, is an efficient play, not a superb one. I’m notably iffy on Skinner’s ending. There’s a robust visible reveal, after which the drama’s most tender — and, within the case of Krasinski, tenderizing — appearing. 

However the confluence of climactic occasions occurs approach too easily, too intentionally, and ends in extra of a thesis assertion concerning the state of gender and masculinity than a plausible, gripping interplay.

It’s OK to be each, nevertheless “Angry Alan” skews too far towards the essay aspect of issues. A second later, the entire shebang is abruptly over with a snap of the fingers, as if a producer offstage is giving a “wrap it up!” sign.

That stated, it’s a play that retains you pondering effectively after blackout. “Angry Alan” results in a contemplative viewers.