All My Sons Runtime

[DoTheDood]

Posted: 3/18/19 at 3:06pm

I know it is a bit early to ask about a show opening next month, but I got a ticket for All My Sons for the third preview on April 6th, but I have to catch the bus at around 11 pm. I'm unfamiliar with the show so I've really been trying to find information about the length of other productions of All My Sons, and haven't been able to find much. Some websites say it runs a bit over 2 hours with one intermission, but doesn't the show have 3 acts? Curious if anyone is familiar enough with this show to help, thanks!

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 3/18/19 at 3:45pm

ALL MY SONS has three acts. it generally runs a solid two and a half hours. But knowing how producers love cutting intermissions on everything these days, I fully expect them to chop one of them and jamming two of the acts together, just like they did with THE CRUCIBLE, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT and others. 

[haterobics]

Posted: 3/18/19 at 3:50pm

If your bus is at Port Authority, you're fortunately at the closest theater you can get already, so as long as it is over by 10:50, you can make it. Earlier would be better, of course.

Either way, always good to know what gate you need to get to and how to get there quickly, if you don't do it often.

Updated On: 3/18/19 at 03:50 PM

[broadway86]

Posted: 3/18/19 at 3:53pm

I was in All My Sons a few years ago, playing Chris, and we cut the second intermission. The production ran just over 2 hours, it's not a terribly long or drawn-out play.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/19/19 at 1:36am

broadway86 said: "I was in All My Sons a few years ago, playing Chris, and we cut the second intermission. The production ran just over 2 hours, it's not a terribly long or drawn-out play."

Somebody must have cut it at some point then. I worked on a production with Jack Klugman and Sada Thompson in the mid-1970s and it was at least 2.5 hours with two intermissions. Miller even wrote or discussed in an interview of how he wrote the long, slow first act to give audiences a sense of the unhurried pace of life in the MidWest!

I think the OP will make the bus, but just barely. Fortunately, as others have pointed out, the trend nowadays is to cut the running times even of classics.

ETA I'm not saying the play was TOO long. The Klugman/Thompson production (with a very young Joanna Merlin in a featured role) was excellent; I didn't mind a minute of the running time.

Updated On: 3/19/19 at 01:36 AM

[broadway86]

Posted: 3/19/19 at 9:02am

GavestonPS said: "broadway86 said: "I was in All My Sons a few years ago, playing Chris, and we cut the second intermission. The production ran just over 2 hours, it's not a terribly long or drawn-out play."

Somebody must have cut it at some point then."

Nope, we performed it as written.

[LarryD2]

Posted: 3/19/19 at 11:11am

I was involved in a regional production last fall. The play was done entirely as written except that the second and third acts were combined. The entire play ran just over 2 hours with a 10-minute intermission. The first act was about 50 minutes long. The combined acts two and three were about 65 minutes. It's not a particularly long play even though it has three acts.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 3/19/19 at 4:11pm

The 2008 Broadway revival also combined Act 2 and 3 by cutting the second intermission. I believe it was only 2.5 hours. But the run time will be entirely dependent on the show's pacing and the portrayals by the actors. At this point it's anyone's guess (lest we forget Taye Diggs dragging Hedwig's runtime from less than two hours to almost 2.5 hours).

[bjh2114]

Posted: 3/19/19 at 6:31pm

The 2008 revival was actually only about 2 hours and 10 minutes. If you remove the second intermission like they did in 2008, the play as written only runs just over an hour. It's only 2.5 hours with the second intermission.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/19/19 at 9:42pm

broadway86 said: "GavestonPS said: "broadway86 said: "I was in All My Sons a few years ago, playing Chris, and we cut the second intermission. The production ran just over 2 hours, it's not a terribly long or drawn-out play."

Somebody must have cut it at some point then."

Nope, we performed it as written."

Perhaps ya'll were talking way too fast.

Seriously, back in the day the play was criticized and Miller defended it for being too long. Tempi--spoken or sung--tend to be much faster nowadays.

Sometimes this is a good thing, but not, I suspect, with ALL MY SONS.

Updated On: 3/19/19 at 09:42 PM

[broadway86]

Posted: 3/20/19 at 9:15am

GavestonPS said: "Perhaps ya'll were talking way too fast.

Seriously, back in the day the play was criticized and Miller defended it for being too long. Tempi--spoken or sung--tend to be much faster nowadays.

Sometimes this is a good thing, but not, I suspect, with ALL MY SONS."

Yeah no, we weren't sprinting through it  See bjh's response, the play without a 2nd intermission isn't all that long.