I’ve often wondered what might happen if you fed a series of Samuel D. Hunter plays into
ChatGPT. The result might look something like Little Bear Ridge Road, the Steppenwolf-
originating play now onstage at the Booth Theatre. This quiet, contained play constitutes the
Broadway debut of this gifted writer, after more than a decade prolifically spent Off-Broadway
and in regional theaters, but it also feels far less consequential than previous works like The
Whale and Lewiston/Clarkston. And for the first time in his career, Hunter’s familiar subject
matter starts to feel repetitive.

You could almost run down every point of the proceedings without seeing or reading it. A rural
Idaho setting? Check. (The tiny town of Troy, about 10 miles outside of Moscow, is rendered
here through Scott Pask’s minimalist set, which the script describes as “a void.”) An aimless,
isolated gay male character? Check again. (That’s Ethan, played by Micah Stock, who returns
from Seattle to settle his father’s estate.) Family baggage? Enough for a trip to Europe and
back.

The brief action centers on the tense relationship between Ethan and his aunt, Sarah (Laurie
Metcalf), a cantankerous nurse who prefers to spend her days in a silent, self-imposed state of
exile. Set partially in 2020, the pandemic forces the pair to cohabitate – a situation that extends
beyond their preferred boundaries and opens many an old wound. Metcalf and Stock have
electric chemistry as the fractured pair, but Hunter’s script gives too general an outline of their
history to allow for real empathy or connection from the audience.

As a snapshot of a period in time, Hunter succeeds, especially in a beautifully awkward first
date between Ethan and James (John Drea), a graduate student who becomes his lifeline amid
the solitude of Troy. Joe Mantello’s direction is as precise as you might expect, and Metcalf
manages to find humor in even the bleakest moments. But as an overall experience, the play
feels less than the sum of its parts.

I’ve rarely left a Hunter play anything less than devastated – that was certainly the case with his
underrated Grangeville, which Signature Theatre premiered earlier this year. (And I’m still
thinking about Signature’s astonishing revival of A Bright New Boise in 2023.) Yet even though
the final two scenes of Little Bear Ridge Road dutifully move the action toward a crushing
conclusion, my eyes remained dry as I walked into the winter night.

Perhaps this patch of rural America is now too well trod.

Little Bear Ridge Road is on stage at the Booth Theatre through February 15, 2026.

Photo by Julieta Cervantes