A ‘Declaration’ That Screams its Message, Rather Than Sings

In spite of an uber-talented cast that provides mostly stellar performances, Rick Leidenfrost-Wilson’s “The Declaration” ends up as a mediocre production that draws its inspiration from an extremely important topic.

Just the mention of same gender marriage and you’re likely to see some emotion involved. All sides in this debate ardently believe that they are right. A good play on this topic would try to accurately portray both sides of the debate. Instead, this production is obviously focused on only one. It even goes as far to paint the other side as evil and devious.

The way the media is painted as well is a bit cynical.

While the drama itself is at times engaging, colorful and witty, many of the characters are painted too unrealistic, while some are mere plot devices. The end result is a performance that feels like a made for TV movie on the Lifetime Network.

In spite of this, it would be a terrible mistake not to say that the production’s star, Jeff Kozel, wasn’t incredibly solid as senatorial candidate Peter Van Arsdale-Troxell. In several scenes, you’ll be close to tears due to the emotional depth of his performance. It is on the sheer passion he displays that this performance is able to stay above water.

Regardless, several times over the course of the production, Kozel and other cast mates fumbled over lines. An incredibly wordy production with little scenery, these small mistakes stood out. Nevertheless, you’d be hard pressed to find any other off-off Broadway production with a cast as deep as this one.

The key supporting roles of Keithen Hergott and Morgan P. Baker were also solid. However, in the case of Hergott, who plays Kozel’s husband, the age-gap between the two hurts the overall realism that’s needed to pass these two off as a pair. While their ability as actors somewhat masks the problem, the two ultimately don’t pass off well as a couple.

In a play filled with emotional highs and lows, Felice Cohen and Sonya Hamelin were the masters of them. Enthralling the crowd, these two were able to keep the play from dragging and added both small comedic and emotional touches that absolutely added brevity to the performance.

In spite of the way it portrays the side of humanity that doesn’t agree with its cause and its unrealistic view of them, “The Declaration” has an ability to both entertain and inform. For that, it belongs on any stage that will have it.

However, these same elements make it less likely to appear at a larger venue.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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