Tony Danza—known for his roles on Taxi and Who’s the Boss?—is beloved for his charming, charismatic demeanor—a buddy who is quick to smile and hug it out. But in Ben Andron’s Broken Snow, an ill-conceived psychological drama now playing Off-Broadway, the 75-year-old Danza plays against type in a confusing play that stretches credulity.
Danza, his hair an impressive, snowy-white, shoulder-length mane, enters the stage in an overcoat and begins a pretentious monologue that feels cribbed from James Joyce’s The Dead about snow covering everything, and mentions a serpent with black-feathered wings. Is this a reference to Biblical flying fiery serpents or the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl? The imagery is never explained despite being mentioned several times, but in case you forgot your high school literary analysis, snow represents death.
85 minutes of set-up, zero payoff
For the next 85 minutes, more cliches and tired tropes pile up. We meet a drifter (Michael Longfellow) and an “officer of the law” (Tom Cavanagh) in an abandoned house as they uncover a biological bond and dark family secrets contained in a mysterious cigar box. Turns out their deadbeat dad, Kris (Danza), may have been a very bad man. The kind that collaborated with Nazis and then escaped into hiding.
The thing is, Danza still has his familiar Italian-American Brooklyn accent and, despite some truly bizarre fathering (like feeding his eight-year-old child crushed apple seeds to poison him potentially), we never buy this hamfisted tale of snow-buried trauma.
Longfellow (a former Saturday Night Live castmember) plays the smart-ass kid to Cavanagh’s earnest truthseeker. Unfortunately, they mostly fumble around, pointing guns at one another as Danza walks on and off in flashbacks, delivering portentous, cryptic messages that amount to nothing.
The secrets at the heart of Broken Snow are dark enough. The script just never figures out what to do with them.
It wants better content.
Is ‘Broken Snow’ worth seeing?
An “officer of the law,” a volatile drifter, and a cigar box full of family secrets—Broken Snow has the ingredients but no recipe.
- Theatre71, 152 West 71st Street, New York City
- Notable performers: Tony Danza, Michael Longfellow, Tony Cavanaugh
- Running Time: 85 minutes, no intermission
- Performances through May 31, 2026
Have another minute?
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Los Angeles – The Geffen’s ‘“Master Harold” … and the Boys’ reminds us why Athol Fugard endures
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