If you played team sports in high school, you may know the bond you form with your teammates. And often that bond lasts well into adulthood, even if there's not much else in common among you. That's the premise of Jason Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "That Championship Season."

 

High school basketball teammates get together with their coach every year to celebrate their state championship win two decades ago. But the Most Popular Guy in School has become the soon-to-be-ousted town mayor, the Sexy Guy is still getting it done, but with his friends' wives, to tragic result, and the Brainiac has become a lonely Jr. High principal who's spent his life taking care of everyone else, including his heavy-drinking brother. And the Coach? Well, his win at all costs mantra has cost them all a lot.

 

The cast of R. Travis Estes, Charlie Barron, B. Weller, Cameron Ulrich and Kevin Beyer show all the levels of the sports-infused bro-mance: the love, the hate, the jealousy, the dependency, the bravado and the little-shown weakness. And, for the last 20 minutes of the play, I almost forgot I was WATCHING a play.

 

I'll admit, I went in thinking this wasn't for me. I'm a chick who never played sports, so, what would I get out of it? Well, I got a lot.

 

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, the brilliant director, Alan Knoll, is my husband, but, if he'd done a terrible job, I'd just avoid talking about him. :) It's truly a lovely production - funny, sad and thought-provoking.

 

***Please know this show is for ADULTS. The subject matter and language are not for the squeamish. Everything gets it in this play: men, women, nationalities, races, political leanings. If you are at all sensitive, think twice. But if you're looking for a production to get you thinking and talking, "That Championship Season" is for you!