"When the laughter fades and you've wiped your hands of these utterly unlikable characters, all the upsetting questions they pondered remain. Becky Shaw touches something tender and doesn't stop there. Like its namesake's devious smile, it lingers. Grade: A–"
"That the show can’t sustain this charge through its erratic second act is more a book issue than performance. The aftermath of Becky and Max’s (unseen) date are downstream conversations between characters that reveal the lopsidedness of their constitutions. Ironically, the play’s namesake, played by Brewer with shades of wild desperation, feels the least grounded: a plot device dressed up as a confection whose big reveal – let’s say a complicated history with Black men – feels both dated and contrived, the bite of Halloween teeth where there could be fangs. Max, the most transparently slimy one of the group, is also the most convincing. Ehrenreich is so good at playing this type of obviously overcompensating, moneyed cad (please see Chloe Domont’s 2023 film Fair Play), so good at contemptuously delivering the line “thatwoman” in a way that sends chills down your spine, that I missed anytime he was offstage.'
"It’s a measure of the quality of Ehrenreich’s superb performance in what is generally an admirably straightforward production that he never tries to make his character more likable than Gionfriddo writes him, yet he lays all these bon mots with a palpable vulnerability. He understands that Max is operating on two tracks at once, spitting out the tough lessons partly as his philosophy of life but also as a way of avoiding the intensity of his own feelings. Gionfriddo intends him to grow on the audience as the play progresses, and so he does."
"Seventeen years after being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, Gina Gionfriddo’s dark, sometimes giddy comedyBecky Shaw finally arrives on Broadway, and noting that it was worth the wait is an understatement none of its brutally honest anti-heroes would make. And if the nearly two-decades-in-the-making arrival meant we had to wait for this excellent cast to come together, all the better."
"While Becky is the catalyst for the play’s chain reaction — and Brewer nimbly inhabits the charged space between exploited and exploiter — it’s the seemingly impenetrable Max who is at last cracked open. Ehrenreich is superb in the role, as unafraid to be horrid as he eventually is to be broken. In a quintet of fine performances, his stands out in this moment so removed from when Becky Shaw debuted (2008 was not bursting at the seams with essays on our crisis of masculinity). “You are a rich man who puts his family in a two-star hotel,” Susan snaps at Max. “That’s what you are.” That may be part of what he is, but Ehrenreich makes clear that the miserable truth of Max is that he’s not really a man at all. He’s a boy who’s been taught that power will save him."
Alden Ehrenreich makes a show-stealing Broadway debut in Gina Gionfriddo’s comedy about two old friends, one disastrous blind date and the dicey aftermath.
"The play has aged fittingly for where we find ourselves, amid a resurgence of the retro male-female gender dynamics that Gionfriddo’s plays hold up to the light. There are reasons that “Becky Shaw” feels alive right now."
Owen22 said: ". Alden was almost as good as the original (now deceased)guy who played Max (can't remember his name, but he seemed so essential to theplay).
As someone who saw it multiple times downtown, from the right mezz seats by the dj and both the left and right sides of the runway, I found the Broadway staging disappointing, which may have been due to my seat. I wanted to do side mezz but my friend wanted more of a deal, so we did side right orchestra, either row F or G, on the end for $59. The view was fine, but after the downtown experience of feeling immersed in the show, this felt very distant, very much watching something happening awa
My Death of a Salesman seat was Left Mezz B51 or so. Stage right was slightly obstructed (could see enough to tell when (spoiler) was standing on top of the car, but couldn't actually see more than an arm and a leg), but the view is decent otherwise. The four or five seats to the left of that should be avoided though.
Holdren's review in Vulture is a good read as always, though, as someone who found it to be one of those shows that's perfectly entertaining without actually being good, I feel like she's being very generous.
"Bring too much of that hyperspecific tone along with you to the August Wilson Theatre, and comparison may indeed prove the thief of joy. But let Stephen Adly Guirgis’s play introduce itself on its own terms, with its firm, enthusiastic handshake and garrulous demeanor (Guirgis has never been a playwright of few words), and the experience quickly endears itself. This time around, under Rupert Goold’s actor-forward direction and with Guirgis’s distinctive voiciness, the story has more in common with the canine of its title — there’s a little more swagger, sweetness, and slobber, a little more desire to please. But please, and move, it does, largely on account of its good heart."
To be clear, in the film, Bette Midler('s character) sings a song, "Otto Titsling." Jordan jokingly requested someone get him a titsling if they give them away as a first preview gift; several others (getting the joke or otherwise) said it won't happen since that song ("Otto Titsling" ) has been cut (along with all other movie songs that aren't "Wind Beneath..." ). But it was easy to misread if you didn't get the "Otto Titsling" reference and know that was specifically the cut song in question.
Considering how every time one of his shows is mentioned on Reddit people immediately comment that they don't support abusers, I can understand why he and his marketers are being careful about how they use social media for his shows, even if he recognizes that all shows should these days.
Adding "Be Happy," which is a minute shorter (though they may have just omitted some dialogue), and the ending is vastly different. They really did revise the character to make her much more melancholy and struggling much more, which is reflected in the songs.
vs.
(Someone in the reviews thread asked why she didn't want to talk to her grandmother. The Broadway version makes it very explicit. "This Year" does as well, so I'm not sure why it would be a question.)
I almost wish Telecharge would send an email to ticket-buyers either telling them to watch the documentary, or with a mini-history and glossary, because I do agree that it's a world that a lot of Broadway-goers might know nothing about.
Excellent suggestion, especially since they already send multiple emails (going next week after seeing it multiple times downtown and have already gotten 2 emails before receiving tickets); would seem eas
George in DC said: "Personally I thinkChristiani Pitts for "Two Strangers ..." should win"
Honestly, out of these three options, so do I (though I wouldn't object if a stronger contender came along).
I found Levy...competent. Until her final big number when she got to belt, which she did ably enough, I didn't find anything particularly strong or interesting in her performance. It was Henry's, and to a lesser degree Uranowitz's show, a
