{"id":354891,"date":"2026-09-23T19:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T19:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354891\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T19:12:24","slug":"review-the-holes-cruising-for-god-in-the-dark-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354891\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Holes, Cruising for God in the Dark Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bubba Weiler stars in Max Wolf Friedlich\u2019s The Holes, directed by Michael Herwitz, at the Wild Project.
(\u00a9 HanJie Chow)<\/p>\n

Straight American men are among the loneliest people on the planet. Frequently maligned in the dominant liberal culture (of which the theater is a minor constituent), straight men often struggle to find fellowship in one another, with one in six American men claiming<\/a> no close friendships.<\/p>\n

And while it is common to see men expressing physical intimacy in Europe, or even holding hands in the Middle East and South Asia, American men rarely do, lest they be categorized as gay. Despite that stigma, they quietly crave the companionship and touch of other men. I am convinced that this deficit of affection, which fathers pass onto their sons like an underwater mortgage, is one of the driving forces in our toxic politics.<\/p>\n

So I give credit to Max Wolf Friedlich for grabbing this issue by the shaft in The Holes<\/a>, now making its world premiere at the Wild Project. Ambitious, ballsy, and overwritten, it boldly confronts the off-Broadway audience with a story that needs to be heard, whether we\u2019re ready for it or not.<\/p>\n

It takes place in a dive bar in Kingston, New York. Joey (Bubba Weiler) tends bar, though there aren\u2019t regulars anymore besides Martha (Tina Benko), the semi-homeless alcoholic who still pines for the glory days when Joey\u2019s dad (now terminally ill) ran the place. Joey, a gay man who has returned to his depressing hometown out of a sense of filial piety, remembers those times as distinctly less glorious. Now tasked with running the family business, he has devised an inspired new source of revenue.<\/p>\n

\"\"Grantham Coleman plays Wesley, and Bubba Weiler plays Joey in Max Wolf Friedlich\u2019s The Holes, directed by Michael Herwitz, at the Wild Project.
(\u00a9 HanJie Chow)<\/p>\n

We understand in the first scene, when Wesley (Grantham Coleman) turns up with an alias and an envelope full of cash. Joey eyes him suspiciously before granting him access to the back room, where a mysterious man will give him a wanking that will change his whole life. Suddenly, Wesley wants to quit his job in venture capital and partner with Joey to transform the bar into a social and wellness club for men, with the back room serving as the grand finale of an evening of male bonding. It\u2019s like a very special episode of Touched by an Angel co-written by Samuel D. Hunter<\/a> and Dan Savage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Friedlich\u2019s script raises some questions: Why would Wesley drive two hours from New York City for a handy when there are many fine establishments offering that exact service in the city? How does Joey schedule time slots for customers when he\u2019s never even had a conversation with the man in the back room? And most importantly, who is this benevolent pervert?<\/p>\n

Carson (Jack Mulhern), a precariously employed former classmate of Joey and frequent visitor to the back room, offers an incredible explanation: It\u2019s Jesus Christ, as evidenced by the holes in his hands. Stigma, meet stigmata.<\/p>\n

Friedlich, writer of the Broadway psychological thriller Job<\/a>, takes a bigger swing here with a play that not only touches on the crisis of male loneliness, but what I have previously referred to<\/a> as the \u201cGod-shaped void\u201d in our lives as atomized consumers. His characters, a microcosm of the liberal West, attempt to fill that hole with booze, business, and bro jobs. Friedlich has subtitled The Holes \u201ca fairytale,\u201d which explains some of the more fantastical turns in his script.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tina Benko plays Martha, and Jack Mulhern plays Carson in Max Wolf Friedlich\u2019s The Holes, directed by Michael Herwitz, at the Wild Project.
(\u00a9 HanJie Chow)<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, director Michael Herwitz\u2019s blandly realistic production does little to support the supernatural elements in this story about heaven-sent hand jobs. Anna Grigo\u2019s set immediately conveys the desperate state of the bar, with its cheap paneling and limited selection. It feels bleak under Evan C. Anderson\u2019s unforgiving lighting. Lily Cunicelli\u2019s costumes account for the class differences onstage, with the practical upstaters wearing ill-fitting garments selected for their warmth. Only sound designer Brandon Bulls seriously attempts to convey the magic in the back room, but with a cue that sounds a lot more like a glitching social media app than a divine revelation.<\/p>\n

That places the onus on the actors to set the tone. The always excellent Benko is particularly compelling as a Hudson Valley Tiresias. \u201cIt\u2019s for women really,\u201d she says, a dark resonance in her voice like she\u2019s discussing the spring at Lourdes. \u201cYou come to the bar angry, ready to hit somebody\u2014your wife probably\u2014n\u2019you leave calm. That Man\u2019s been molding this community, sculpting better men with his bare hands.\u201d She foresees only doom coming from this attempt to monetize such a blessing.<\/p>\n

But Coleman\u2019s performance makes it clear that Wesley (who we initially meet as \u201cPaul\u201d) is an evangelist who will not be denied, who will do anything to get potential investors to shout, \u201cyes, yes, YES!\u201d His brief interactions with Carson (whom Mulhern endows with the affable dimness of a man who wants to do right in a world set up to enslave him) illuminate the simmering tension between manic strivers and the working class.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bubba Weiler stars in Max Wolf Friedlich\u2019s The Holes, directed by Michael Herwitz, at the Wild Project.
(\u00a9 HanJie Chow)<\/p>\n

Weiler, himself a gifted<\/a> playwright<\/a>, serves as the many-chambered heart of this production. His Joey is intelligent, cynical, yet quietly hopeful that something extraordinary will come around to give his life meaning. He\u2019s where I suspect a lot of the audience is, which makes him an ideal tour guide. But even Weiler\u2019s understated charms wear thin as The Holes passes the two-hour mark and Friedlich desperately searches for a way to wrap up the beautiful mess he has unpacked onstage.<\/p>\n

For all its shagginess, I would still recommend seeing The Holes, an imperfect play that still feels groundbreaking. With generous amounts of humor, Friedlich earnestly tries to reach an audience sadly accustomed to writing off men\u2019s issues as so much privileged whining, a position buttressed by a willful ignorance of male sexuality and a refusal to contemplate anything that deviates from our simplistic sexual taxonomy. Eventually, we\u2019re going to have to relinquish our smug certainty about the world if the theater is ever to be relevant to the wider culture again.<\/p>\n

Like the man in the back room, The Holes is waiting for you downtown when you\u2019re ready to let go.<\/p>\n