“Zack” at Mint Theatre, New York
Glenda Frank in Manhattan
★★★★☆
24 March 2026
Since 1992 the Mint Theatre on Theatre Row has been resurrecting brilliant but forgotten scripts. Their current production of Zack by Harold Brighouse, directed by Britt Berke with meticulous attention to the details that make such performances pop, is outstanding. Twists and surprises are everywhere, and they evolve from the circumstances and characters. Into this timeless world of business rivalry and family pecking order, a visitor cousin arrives and changes everyone’s chemistry. It’s a gender-switched Cinderella story, where justice is restored by a woman’s determination to have her man.
Zack Munning (Jordan Matthew Brown, Book of Mormon) is the family whipping boy, overweight, his pockets stuffed with food bits, and amiable to a fault. He gladly disappears into the wallpaper. But Virginia (Cassia Thompson), a wealthy cousin who has come to the country to regain her health, ignites his latent romantic streak.
The family catering business is teetering. The competition is stealing customers. Mrs. Munning (Melissa Maxwell) is dependent on Paul (David T. Patterson, Les Liaisons Dangereuses), Zack’s overbearing brother, whose heart is an adding machine. When she discovers that Virginia is returning Zack’s affection, she coaches Paul on how to replace him. Meanwhile an employee of the company (Sean Runnette), who was sacked when he broke his arm and could no longer work, has vowed revenge. When his daughter (Grace Guichard) visits the family to ask for help, Zack offers food and a hug. Assuming they are engaged, she tells her father who is delighted with the match. It looks like there are going to be two mismatched weddings.
We all know how the play is going to end. The wonder is how Brighouse allows circumstances and personalities to find happiness. It was edge of the seat for me. I didn’t see much of it coming. There is talk of emigrating to Canada, a large dowry, pressure from a local workers’ association, and the irony of how a hard-nosed businesswoman finds a path to love.
The roles are challenging and could easily degenerate into stereotypes. But they don’t thanks to director Berke (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Becomes a Woman) and the fine cast. As we observe Zack’s natural generosity to everyone and his difficulty asserting himself, the arc from sad sack to romantic interest becomes more than the onstage shaving of his beard – although it is a clever, transformative sleight of hand. Thompson finds an assured balance between Virginia’s flexibility and focus. Maxwell is the most contemporary figure, a single mother who has to keep the company profitable. She finds the mother’s heart in the businesswoman’s choices, and without words makes us understand the pressure of running a floundering company. Sean Runnette as the worker brings high energy and passion to his scenes. Grace Guichard, a comic delight as his daughter, displays a wide range, progressing from embarrassed supplicant to euphoric bride.
Zack has a contemporary feel despite the appealing period costuming by Kindall Almond. There are echoes of Oscar Wilde, but Brighouse was deliberately working class. Despite his parents’ ambitions for him, he turned down a scholarship and dropped out of school at 17 to work as a textile buyer. Promoted to salesman, he began to attend local theatre, a passion that grew when he was transferred to the London office. He married another “first-nighter” – the name for the devoted young crowd that sat in the topmost gallery. Upon returning to Manchester, he joined the Swan Club made up of theatre people. His annoyance at the many bad plays he saw inspired his first play. His own plays were later produced at Annie Horniman’s Gaiety Theatre which turned Manchester into a theatre town.
In 2001, the Mint Theatre staged Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice. Both Hobson’s Choice and Zack explore Brighouse’s signature themes, the young woman whose clear thinking and bold choices right the world. In Hobson’s Choice, the playwright’s most famous work, boasting a Broadway run in 1915 and several film adaptations, the over-the-hill Cinderella (32 years old) convinces her father’s underappreciated skilled workman to marry her and then ensures the happiness of her two beautiful sisters despite the wishes of their alcoholic father. How clever of Brighouse to realize that smart women make for good drama!
