{"id":2376935,"date":"2026-04-17T02:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2376935"},"modified":"2026-04-17T02:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T02:12:14","slug":"proof-review-ayo-edebiri-and-don-cheadle-star-in-underpowered-broadway-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/proof-review-ayo-edebiri-and-don-cheadle-star-in-underpowered-broadway-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Proof&#8217; review: Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle star in underpowered Broadway revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F04%2F125794727.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--review alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n\t\t<span class=\"inline-module--review__eyebrow subsection-heading-semi__label\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tTheater review\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"inline-module--review__title subsection-heading-semi\">\n\t\t\tPROOF\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"rating\">\n<div class=\"rating__stars\">\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--filled\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 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stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--half\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rating__star rating__star--empty\"><?php \/**\n * Review star.\n * \n * @package nyp-editor\n *\/\n\n??><\/p>\n<style><![CDATA[\n\t.review-block-star {\n\t\t--review-block-star--empty-color: #585858;\n\t\t--review-block-star--fill-color: #000;\n\t}\n]]><\/style>\n<p><svg class=\"icon-star review-block-star\" stroke=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\" fill=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 16 16\" height=\"13px\" width=\"13px\">\n\t<defs>\n\t\t<lineargradient id=\"half-gradient\">\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"50%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--fill-color)\"\/>\n\t\t\t<stop stop-opacity=\"1\" offset=\"0%\" stop-color=\"var(--review-block-star--empty-color)\"\/>\n\t\t<\/lineargradient>\n\t<\/defs>\n\t<path d=\"M3.612 15.443c-.386.198-.824-.149-.746-.592l.83-4.73L.173 6.765c-.329-.314-.158-.888.283-.95l4.898-.696L7.538.792c.197-.39.73-.39.927 0l2.184 4.327 4.898.696c.441.062.612.636.283.95l-3.523 3.356.83 4.73c.078.443-.36.79-.746.592L8 13.187l-4.389 2.256z\">\n\t<\/path>\n<\/svg>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>2 hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission. At the Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th Street.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Just one piece of the first Broadway revival of David Auburn\u2019s most famous play answers the question \u201cWhat exactly is \u2018Proof\u2019 + 26 years?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s Ayo Edebiri, the ubiquitous actress from FX\u2019s \u201cThe Bear\u201d who plays grief-stricken Catherine, the role made famous more than a quarter century ago by a young Mary Louise Parker.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The setting of the tight-as-a-drum drama, which opened Thursday night at the Booth Theatre, hasn\u2019t been moved from the early aughts. But Edebiri\u2019s cringing, self-deprecating embodiment of a woman at her wit\u2019s end couldn\u2019t be more rooted in 2026 \u2014 much in the same way Parker\u2019s lauded turn was a mascot for the new millennium.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The original actress\u2019 performance as a Chicago student whose renowned mathematician father has just died is remembered for its directness, assured control of her character\u2019s sexuality and untethered energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Edebiri\u2019s scaled-back version, with nary a hint of any of that, has Gen Z written all over it. Catherine recedes when confronted. She runs toward geekiness \u2014 not away from it. She hides from others using a sense of humor that\u2019s mainly for her own amusement, not for anybody else\u2019s. Painful emotions make her physically tremble while she fights to keep them down.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--more inline-module--columnist inline-module--more--thirds\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<h2 class=\"inline-module__heading subsection-heading subsection-heading--single-line \">\n\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"subsection-heading__sub\">Johnny Oleksinski<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Admirably, hers is a very different portrayal of Catherine than any I\u2019ve seen before. At times, it\u2019s a very moving one. And, while Edebiri\u2019s interpretation won\u2019t please everybody or even gel with all the beats of the play \u2014 particularly older sister Claire and new friend Hal\u2019s sexist insistence that Catherine couldn\u2019t possibly be a math wiz \u2014 the actress\u2019 sheer modernity helps prevent \u201cProof\u201d from feeling too retro.<\/p>\n<p>Phew. Because director Thomas Kail certainly isn\u2019t helping her\u00a0on that front.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On a bright University of Chicago backyard set by Teresa L. Williams that could be used on dark nights for \u201cHome Improvement Live!,\u201d the man who staged \u201cHamilton\u201d sheepishly delivers an uninspired checklist of basic entrances and exits while batting away the many artistic possibilities Auburn\u2019s script provides.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Ayo Edebiri makes her Broadway debut in \u201cProof.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Matthew Murphy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After all, this is a show that begins with a fantasized conversation between a fraying daughter and her dead dad, Robert, dispassionately played by Don Cheadle, and poignant memory scenes from past years fade in dreamlike. Her father also suffered from dementia, and in flashbacks we witness his bad days and lucid days. The mind\u2019s power, or lack thereof, drives the story just as much as the familiar family fights that cement it as a traditional American play do.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You see, \u201cProof\u201d is packed with the potential for illuminating expressionism or thrilling deconstruction. There are ample opportunities to <em>revive<\/em> it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nah, said Kail. Have a fake lawn.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Don Cheadle plays Catherine\u2019s father, Robert, a struggling math genius who\u2019s died. <span class=\"credit\">Matthew Murphy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stomping on plastic grass with Edebiri is Claire, Catherine\u2019s high-strung, put-together sister who lives in New York and contributed cash to dad\u2019s care but kept her physical distance away from Hyde Park. Shocker \u2014 that causes some friction.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kara Young, a brilliant performer who\u2019s taken just five years to become a big reason Broadway audiences buy tickets, stands out as she always does. Her funny Claire, recognizable to anybody with a critical sister, makes so many statements with her hands it\u2019s like she took a communications course at Cobra Kai.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As entertaining as Young is, though, her Claire is questionably sized bigger than Catherine, dad and Hal (a sweet Jin Ha), the hunky-dorky math student that Catherine is smitten with, putting the noticeably ensemble off balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Claire (Kara Young) jets to Chicago to help her sister. <span class=\"credit\">Matthew Murphy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And she\u2019s not the only one out of sync. Cheadle\u2019s general nonchalance robs his role of would-be shattering moments of impact. Whether Robert is at his lowest, scribbling gibberish in a notebook in the frigid Chicago cold, or back to his old self taking Catherine to dinner for her birthday, he\u2019s the same even-keeled guy. A powerful thread is thus snapped.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, the show about mathematicians has its problems \u2014 Kail\u2019s shrugging direction, such as it is, being the biggest. And yet Auburn\u2019s ironclad script alone remains exceedingly enjoyable, especially for lucky newbies who don\u2019t know the bombshell that\u2019s coming. Add to that Edebiri, who, while not giving the career-defining performance Parker did, is nonetheless worth seeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unlike with a proof, a few out-of-place elements don\u2019t always send an entire production into the trash bin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theater review PROOF 2 hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission. At the Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th Street. Just one piece of the first Broadway revival of David Auburn\u2019s most famous play answers the question \u201cWhat exactly is \u2018Proof\u2019 + 26 years?\u201d That\u2019s Ayo Edebiri, the ubiquitous actress from FX\u2019s \u201cThe Bear\u201d who plays [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2376936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[21741,24047,345886],"class_list":["post-2376935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-entertainment","tag-theater","tag-theater-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Proof-review-Ayo-Edebiri-and-Don-Cheadle-star-in-underpowered.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2376935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2376937,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376935\/revisions\/2376937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2376936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2376935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2376935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2376935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}