Advice for the lovelorn and lost in ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’

Ken Rus Schmoll’s “first read” reaction to the Nia Vardalos stage adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s epistolary “Tiny Beautiful Things” was that it was uniquely unlike any other play he had experienced by air, land or sea.

“It’s almost an experimental play,” said Schmoll, whose second reaction was to accept Long Wharf Theatre’s invitation to stage the play, which officially opens Wednesday, “but one that’s tremendously generous, and tremendously accessible.

“It’s a play about connections between people,” he said.

“Tiny Beautiful Things,” co-conceived by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail and Vardalos, centers on Sugar (Cindy Cheung), who offers free advice and hope to her lovelorn and spiritually traumatized correspondents (Brian Sgambati plays Letter Writer No. 1; Elizabeth Ramos is Letter Writer No. 2; and Paul Pontrelli plays Letter Writer No. 3).

Critical consensus on the heels of the play’s Off-Broadway, three-week run just over two years ago at The Public Theatre was favorable. The director is not one to

disagree.

“As I read it, I felt as if I was attended to as a human being, very directly,” said Schmoll, who previously directed Rob Handel’s “Aphrodisiac” at the Long Wharf Theatre. “What I was most interested in was Cheryl’s beautiful writing, her sort of radical way in which she would ‘offer advice,’ which is much less straightforward than most advice columns. She would share stories from her life. (Strayed) is just an incredible person with incredible insight.”

Vardalos is best known for writing and starring in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (both the original and its sequel). Vardalos played Sugar to lofty praise during the show’s New York run.

“Tiny Beautiful Things,” which runs at Long Wharf through March 10, retains about “80-85 percent of Cheryl’s words” contained in the letters to Cheryl, who was anonymous at the time.

“The sentiments that people are writing are very pure, in a sense. Her responses to their writing, because she was honest too, are also pure. The play itself has almost no subtext because it’s comprised of people in a very difficult situation who need help, and they are taking the brave step in writing someone to help,” said Schmoll, whose New York directing credits include “The Invisible Hand” and “Red Dog Howls” at New York Theatre Workshop. “So they are vulnerable, and there’s not a lot of hiding. They’re sort of coming out of hiding for the first time. Typically in a play, there’s characters hiding things, and mysteries to be revealed. So it’s a very immediate experience — and very moving, I think.”

The challenge Schmoll and his cast have negotiated lies in resisting the temptation to over-stage the production, lest hyper-kinetic action detract from the text.

“That’s something we’re still in the midst of figuring out,” he said. “My inclination is never to move unless there’s some great reason, and because these are letters, the ‘movement’ is in the story of these letters. We definitely want to follow the movement, or follow the stories.”

Schmoll characterized the play as “intense” despite its relative lack of physicality.

“It can be exhausting,” he said. “We’ve found that movement is good to create some circulation for the audience. They’re asked to pay attention, to really listen. It’s a lot of work.”

Schmoll said that the play’s apparent lack of conflict makes “Tiny Beautiful Things” no less engaging.

“The reason we do the play is because we are so are isolated,” said the director, citing omnipresent cellphones as a prime source of this want for genuine, human interaction. “Finding passionate connections onstage is something we don’t see as much.”

T. Charles Erickson / Contributed photo Cindy Cheung and Paul Pontrelli, in front, with Brian Sgambati and Elizabeth Ramos in the Long Wharf production of “Tiny Beautiful Things.”

T. Charles Erickson / Contributed photo Cindy Cheung stars in “Tiny Beautiful Things.”