ADMISSIONS - Affirmative Action and Reaction of Reverse Discrimination-What's Fair Doesn't Fare Well

Admittedly ADMISSIONS attempts to address issues of racial diversity, affirmative action and reverse discrimination which our nation has failed to resolve.  Joshua Harmon (b Amer 1983) is a talented playwright. His previous play BAD JEWS received an Outer Critics Circle Award ('14).  His new play at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse theater gives Jews whose hypocritical posturing for flaunting liberal fairness in affirmative action except when perceived as unfair when it proves  personally unjust.  Topics of privilege and inequality (take note for a test) are unbalanced & unbearable yet manages to cause consideration for our perceived notions of equality & justifications for favoring minority individuals using affirmative action.  This does disservice to more qualified candidates due to inherent advantages of affluence & privilege being in a dominant majority.  The play is set at the prestigious private high school Hill Crest during the 2015-16 school year.  Sherri (Jessia Hecht) is the school's admissions director.  Sherri's son Charlie (an overly dramatic Ben Edelman) is a senior at the school. Charlie's applied to various Ivy leagues with an eye on Yale.  The play starts on the eve of the Christmas break with a comedic cause for celebration.  Sherri is frustrated & peevish towards Robert (a pitch perfect Ann McDonough) who didn't provide the prescribed photos for the school's brochure to show a diversified campus population. The absurdity & political correctness is satirized with razor sharp wit which earns an A+.  However, the rest of the semester slides downward on the grading curve.  Hecht, a Tony nominated actress is too shrill and incredulous in her self-righteousness & fierce tiger mom stance.  Charlie's acrimonious meltdown regarding the unfairness of his bi-racial friend receiving an admittance to Yale when he's the better candidate but received a deferment.  The whaling was extremely off-putting & puerile.  Thankfully, one of his 2 parents listening, his dad Bill (Andrew Mason) puts him in his place for behaving atrociously; " a spoiled, over privileged brat!"  Bill offers sensible & sensitive questions why one candidate may be selected v. another.   Bill's tune changes radically when Charlie intends to prove his parents how hypocritical they are & cuts his nose off to spite his face.  Charlie withdraws all his college applications & maintains he's going to community college and intends to pay his own way.  There is a serious syllabus of complicated & direct subjects.  There is the universal theme of parents always wanting the best for their child.  The subject matters of importance brought to the table for dissection are crucial.  Sadly, the table is missing a leg with uneven performances & writing.  Perhaps some corrections could make ADMISSIONS worth submitting as a viable candidate for a Tony.