Sadie Sink and cast shine on Broadway

“I genuinely want Taylor Swift to murder John Mayer.” So shouts high schooler Raelynn Nix (Amalia Yoo) in John Proctor Is the Villain, Kimberly Belflower’s captivating Broadway play that opened at the Booth Theatre this evening.

The declaration comes, naturally, as a way for Raelynn to distract her friends from a larger conversation that she’d rather not have: what she plans to do about Lee (Hagan Oliveras), her ex-boyfriend who recently cheated on her with her best friend Shelby (Stranger Things star Sadie Sink). In fact, John Proctor is the Villain is largely about what its characters aren’t saying: their fears, their desires, their angst, their pain, and their grief. 

The play, which takes place in a one stoplight town in rural Georgia in 2018, follows an English Honors class as they dissect The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s 1953 play that used the Salem witch trials as an allegory for McCarthyism and the mass hysteria surrounding the hunt for communists in the U.S. Their reading about John Proctor and his affair with orphaned teenager Abigail, who begins accusing others of witchcraft, just so happens to coincide with Raelynn and her friends’ decision to form their school’s first-ever Feminism Club. However, they soon find their convictions tested when a series of sexual assault scandals rock their local community.

Combined, John Proctor Is the Villain not only serves as a modern day recontextualization of the original play, but also a laugh-out-loud funny and deeply affecting examination of girlhood, feminism, the #MeToo movement, and the unstoppable power of female friendship. It is pure, heartbreaking perfection. 

Belflower, in her Broadway debut, succeeds at crafting a crop of vibrant, complicated teenagers that actually feel their age as they thirst over Harry Styles, fight for praise from their cool English teacher Mr. Smith (Tony award-winner Gabriel Ebert), and quote Taylor Swift and Beyoncé lyrics back at one another like they’re speaking a second language.

It’s also abundantly clear that Belflower, who is an educator herself, not only understands teenagers but respects them too, refusing to pigeonhole her characters into stereotypical angsty teens and instead championing their intellect and emotional maturity. And while yes, they do find themselves swept up in spats along the way, the obvious and deep affection that the girls all have for one another can’t be denied.

That fertile soil serves as the perfect place for John Proctor’s all-star cast to play — and play they certainly do. Maggie Kuntz breathes both charisma and sensitivity into Ivy Watkins, making the conflicted teen feel raw and sympathetic rather than a melodramatic mean girl. Meanwhile, Fina Strazza is nothing but a treasure as Beth, painting a vivid portrait of an overachieving perfectionist whose self-worth is so closely tied to her grades that even the slightest veering away from the class syllabus could cause her to explode into a big buzzy meltdown. She’s so serious that she has a literal binder for lunch, y’all.

The classroom is rounded out with performances by Morgan Scott as Nell, the new girl from Atlanta who shines so brightly with her perfectly-timed punchlines that she obscures all of her deep dark insecurities, and Nihar Duvvuri as Mason, a seemingly airheaded jock who truly blossoms when he discovers that men can (and should!) be feminists, too. Put them in a scene together, and the pair truly sing.

Although she arrives in the middle of the play, Sink easily finds her footing amongst her immensely talented peers as Shelby, the school’s quick-witted teenage outcast who feels reminiscent of her toughened Stranger Things character, Max Mayfield. She wears Shelby’s bold bravado like a shield, slowly lowering her guard as chaos erupts in the classroom to reveal a softer, wounded side hidden just underneath. Her performance is so wonderfully and heartbreakingly human that it’s hard to look away from — and one that may require repeat viewing, especially after the play’s twist is revealed.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

However, it’s Yoo’s performance as Raelynn that truly steals the show. Her character is by far given the greatest space to emotionally mature throughout the play, a challenge that Yoo rises to meet. Like Sink, she seems to thrive in the gray areas that the play presents, reveling in the conflict her character feels toward her former friend and creating a fully fleshed out teen who is an amalgamation of hilarity, heart, and hurt all at once. When Sink and Yoo are onstage together, their chemistry is undeniable as they flip from firing off rude remarks at one another to laughing so hard that they begin to weep.

The production is spearheaded by director Danya Taymor, fresh off her Tony win for Best Musical for The Outsiders, who keeps John Proctor moving at a steady clip — although its dialogue is so engrossing that its 105 minute runtime breezes by in the blink of a green light.

Each of its scenes, which are contained almost entirely to their English classroom set, are also thoughtfully stitched together with interstitials that utilize flickering lights and projections — courtesy of lighting designer Natasha Katz and projection designer Hannah Wasileski — to focus on a singular character and allow viewers a glimpse into their own internal monologue.

Without giving too much away, John Proctor manages to weave together its serious subject matter into a thoroughly satisfying, endlessly charming, and adrenaline rush-inducing finale that will leave attendees dancing out of the theatre. Consider this your green light and dance your way to the Booth Theatre ASAP. Grade: A