‘Mothers and Sons’ explores the ties that bind too tight and not tight enough Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, International Association of Theatre Critics A new breed of plays about life in the gay community is starting to replace the political and exclusively tragic plot points found in such groundbreaking 1980s and 1990s dramas as Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart” and Terrance McNally’s “Lips Together, Teeth Apart.” One such play, McNally’s “Mothers and Sons” – which enjoyed 104 performances on Broadway in 2014 – is now on stage in the intimate Studio Theater at the Beck Center for the Arts. Bucking the thematic tradition of portraying explicitly or presumably gay characters as self-hating, suicidal, and suffering from or under the constant threat of the AIDS pandemic, “Mothers and Sons” examines the life of the survivors now that the dust has settled and the political climate has changed. The walking wounded include Katharine (Catherine Albers), the long-suffering, self-hating and suicidal mother of Andre – a young actor who died of AIDS 20 years ago – and Andre’s thoughtful and reflective former partner, Cal (David Bugher). Now in his fifties, Cal is married to the younger Will (Scott Esposito) and the two are raising a six-year-old son (Ian McLaughlin) in their Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan. At the heart of this play is McNally’s determination to portray the new normal in the American family unit. He does this by unceremoniously inviting the audience – by way of Katherine’s unexpected visit – into Cal and Will’s well lived-in home so we can witness for ourselves their ordinary lives on a typical day during little Bud’s regularly scheduled bath time. And McNally succeeds, for this play effectively puts dramatic and seemingly rapid social change into a perfectly casual and comfortable context. For more of this review, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.