Theater: “Clyde’s” by Lynn Nottage

You’d better eat before you see Lynn Nottage’s “Clyde” (in previews at Second Stage) or else you’ll be gnawing on your program halfway through. That’s because the characters, line cooks in a Pennsylvania truck stop diner, often pause while they’re preparing hamburgers and tuna sandwiches, to wax rhapsodic about the sandwiches they dream of making someday—reciting ingredients that would make Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio salivate.

Mind you, this isn’t the server staff you may have seen in “Waitress.” These are salty, foul-mouthed, down-on-their-luck ex-cons, whose wit is as sharp as their butcher knives. All have been hired by owner Clyde (played by dL Sams tonight), a tough unsympathetic tyrant who believes in treating her employees as the prisoners they used to be.

The entire five-person cast is superb but of special note is pink-dredded Kara Young, who is making a spectacular debut on Broadway. Kudos to her, to Nottage, and to Second Stage, who together convinced us to head directly  home and devour the entire contents of our refrigerator.