The show, first produced Off-Broadway in 2016, follows a fictional country music icon named Strings McCrane, who finds himself in an existential tailspin on learning of his mother's death.
[1][2] The story revolves around a country music icon named Strings McCrane, who finds himself in an existential tailspin on learning of his mother's death.
[4] The 2016 production received mixed reviews with Frank Rizzo of Variety praising its lead star Olyphant but writing that while "The play is entertaining and engaging, performed by a top-rate ensemble...its long reach for political and social resonance is a stretch, with Strings and those around him equating or manipulating his celebrity life and personal angst to a larger moral drift of the country.
"[5] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "There’s a much better play nestling in the almost three hours of Hold On to Me Darling, but Lonergan seems unwilling to find it, leaving most of the poignancy buried between his disjointed scenes en route to a conclusion of unearned emotion.".
"[10] For Vogue, Christopher Barnard commented that throughout the play's nearly 3-hour runtime "Driver does not hit a false note, a feat considering the aw-shucks, cowboy clichés lurking in the lines for less capable actors.