An educated guess at a Zach Braff production.
Having not seen the play ‘All New People’, written by and starring actor/ comedian/ JD lookalike Zach Braff, you’d think it would be hard to write a review. But if anything he’s ever done is anything to go by, it will be side-splittingly funny, cleverer than most and with a hot female lead.
Known primarily as the daydreaming JD in Scrubs, Braff made his first foray into independent film writing, directing and starring in ‘Garden State’, 2004, alongside smokin’ hot lead Natalie Portman. Winning a Grammy for its soundtrack, Garden State became a cult indie classic and led scouts at the big film festivals to say things like ‘we’re looking for the next Garden State’. The film showed another side to Braff; darker, more contemplative with considerable talents as a writer, revisited in ‘All New People’.
Having wowed New York critics with the production last year at the Second Stage Theatre, Braff’s brought the party to the UK, currently showing in Glasgow and hitting The Duke of York Theatre in London for a 10-week run from 22nd February. Directed by Peter DuBois, the play is set in the dead of winter in California – a far cry from a British dead winter we might point out. Braff takes the lead, Charlie, suicidal on his 35th birthday hiding away at a friend’s Long Island apartment, who gets by with a little help from, not his friends, but a group of complete strangers including a hired beauty, a fireman and an estate agent. Eve Myles, who told i-D she once motor-boated Dawn French, is that hot female lead, winning her part after a Skype audition with DuBois and Braff.
i-D online sat down with Braff while he sipped an energy drink to get over his jetlag, trying at all times not to mention Scrubs and instead focus on the play. Fortunately, he brought it up first.
All New People runs from 22nd February-28th April 2012 at the Duke of York theatre.
Text: Sarah Raphael
