After a six-year hiatus from the New York stage, Noah Galvin is delivering a dynamite performance in “The Reservoir,” an off-Broadway dramedy that explores alcoholism, aging and intergenerational relationships. Though the actor says the play “felt like the right challenge at the right time,” he had reservations about taking on a project in which several characters experience memory loss after losing his father, Austin, to Lewy body dementia in 2023.

“I had a lot of conversations around whether this was healthy for me to be doing,” Galvin told HuffPost. “Dealing with somebody going through a cognitive decline such as the one my father went through … is really tragic and really horrible and really awful. The way my family got through it was through laughter, humor, joy, celebration, music and all of the things that I felt jump off the page.”

He continued, “This play could so easily be a sort of ‘issue play,’ and ... I’m honestly bored of that. I just want to see great characters and delicious relationships that feel true to life. So I made the choice early on that this was going to be cathartic and healing for me, and it has been that tenfold.”

Directed by Shelley Butler, “The Reservoir” centers on Josh (played by Galvin), a young gay man who returns to his Colorado hometown while on an indefinite break from New York University amid a drinking bender. After a frosty welcome from his divorced mom (Heidi Armbruster), Josh takes steps to rebuild his life, starting with getting sober.

His recovery begins in earnest, however, as he ingratiates himself with his four grandparents, each of whom is experiencing some form of cognitive decline. Nana Irene (Mary Beth Peil) has advanced Alzheimer’s disease, while Grandpa Shrimpy (Chip Zien) jokes that he’s been diagnosed with “diet Alzheimer’s,” even though it’s unclear if he’s simply feeling disoriented.

Josh’s most impactful relationship, however, is with his divorced Grandma Beverly (Caroline Aaron of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), who shares her own journey with addiction and accompanies her grandson to his first 12-step meeting. He also finds a kindred spirit in his middle-aged boss, Hugo (Matthew Saldívar), as the two men discover their lives have unexpected parallels.

At 31, Galvin has won acclaim for his work on television series like “The Real O’Neals” and “The Good Doctor” as well as on Broadway, where he succeeded his now-husband, fellow actor Ben Platt, in the title role of the musical “Dear Evan Hansen.” His big-screen breakout came in 2019’s “Booksmart,” when he delivered a rather, um, literal interpretation of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.”

Though playwright Jake Brasch has said “The Reservoir” is semi-autobiographical, Galvin took much of his inspiration for the character of Josh from his own early experiences as a child actor.

“I left school a lot as a child to work, and I found I was learning more in rooms with smart, older creatives than I was sitting in a classroom in Westchester, studying whatever, so that I could pass the Regents exam and move on,” he said. “If you have the privilege of getting Peter Maloney [who plays Josh’s Grandpa Hank] in a room and letting him going off about being an actor for the past 60 years, take it, because it’s a great joy.”

Galvin had previously collaborated with Peil on a reading for a musical adaptation of the 1971 film “Harold and Maude,” where he discovered his co-star — who endeared herself to a generation of fans as Evelyn “Grams” Ryan on “Dawson’s Creek” — “has a joie de vivre that is absolutely intoxicating.”

“You meet her, and you wish that she was your best friend, but also your mother and your therapist and your sister,” he said. “I think just being around her makes me better.”

“The Reservoir” also marks Galvin’s most high-profile role since he and Platt tied the knot in 2024. Being a relatively new newlywed, he explained, and working with actors who have “full, three-dimensional lives and families and places to be” beyond their profession has helped him approach the play with a healthy sense of balance.

“When I was younger, I felt intense pressure to be leader and also camp counselor — to be everything to everybody at all times — or else I would feel like I wasn’t fulfilling my job and rising to the occasion,” he said. “It’s necessary to protect yourself. But I’m on stage with some epic motherfuckers, so I have to be on my shit. I have to be at the top of my game. And so I think I’ve found a balance with this show that I’m hoping I can carry forward.”

“The Reservoir” is now playing at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater.

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