Pig Farm at Roundabout

[NYSinger1]

Posted: 6/10/06 at 11:37am

I saw Pig Farm last night, at Roundabout. It was their first performance. The show was hysterically funny. All four actors was great in their "comic intensity". Katie was even trying to contain herself from cracking up hysterically. The play is almost satire. They are not supposed to laugh at themselves, but some of the scenes are very funny.

There is a lot of physical comedy in the show. Dennis O'hare is a master at it. Katie, and Logan were great at the physical comedy as well.

All in all, a great show.

They have some littel kinks to work out, that was evident. (The faucet broke, I am still not sure if that was part of the show, or if it was an accident.) Their comic timing needs to be a little more crisp.

I would look for great things for this little show.

[lamentingenvelope]

Posted: 6/10/06 at 12:10pm

I'm seeing it in July and very much looking forward to it. It sounds perfect because it's essentially a combination of my three favorite things (satire, physical comedy, and Denis O'Hare. )

[Corine2]

Posted: 6/10/06 at 12:17pm

I can't wait to see Denis!
Love, him!

[secret-soul]

Posted: 6/10/06 at 12:25pm

yay!!! buy tickets! buy tickets!!!!

212-719-1300

[lamentingenvelope]

Posted: 6/10/06 at 12:35pm

I'm buying my tickets right now, actually!

I'm dragging along both my parents and my friend who has absolutely no interest in ANY of my three favorite things... let's see if this will convert her.

[QMAN03]

Posted: 6/10/06 at 12:44pm

I'm seeing it at the Globe here in San Diego.

[aspiringactress]

Posted: 6/10/06 at 12:54pm

My brother won two tickets yesterday, and he's taking me.

[BroadwayBaby6]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 4:28pm

Humor is subjective. I saw a reading of it in Costa Mesa and walked out at intermission. I'm sure some people will find it roaringly funny.I found its humor to be juvenile and repetitive.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 4:49pm

WOOHOO Urinetown folks! Let this show be a success and bring it to Broadway! We need more of this kind of comedy back on the Great White Way. What an amazing cast. Can't wait to see it.

[NYSinger1]

Posted: 6/11/06 at 5:39pm

I want to comment on BroadwayBaby's post. A lot of the comedy of the show came from physical comedy. I think a lot of the humor would be lost in a "reading" of it. Did they act out a lot of the scenes?

Also, while some of the lines/phrases are repeated. They are repeated almost as David Mamet repeats words for emphasis. The words are very simplistic, but the real humor and depth to the play is in the subtext.

I would have to respectfully disagree. I did not find the humor juvenile at all, I actually found it to be very smart, intelligent, and mature.

[April Saul]

Posted: 6/12/06 at 2:48pm

Yes, yes, yes!
My daughter and I saw the second performance of Pig Farm and laughed our butts off. We even stuck around to thank Denis O'Hare and Logan Marshall-Green, who emerged in between shoes and thank them for giving us so much fun. With respect to the poster who found the humor juvenile, then I must be a pretty sophomoric middle-aged woman because it was just a treat for me. The next day I saw Awake and Sing, and while I admired Odets and the actors, I much preferred the sheer enjoyment of Pig Farm....

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 6/12/06 at 2:58pm

What's the run time?

[pinochlehead]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 1:46pm

Running time is 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Updated On: 6/27/06 at 01:46 PM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 1:48pm

Is Denis O'Hare actually good this time, or is he just doing the same thing again?

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 2:00pm

O'Hare was fantastic is Charity, I'm sure his comedy skills are great in this show.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 2:02pm

He was exactly the same in TAKE ME OUT, ASSASSINS, and CHARITY.

[pinochlehead]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 9:57am

I agree with BroadwayBaby6's take on PIG FARM: juvenile and repetitive. I guess the author means the stilted dialogue to be funny, but it's just cloying! The actors are all great. Denis O'Hare does his usual stuff, which I happen to find funny.

[Corine2]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:14am

Munk,
I love ya, but don't you say a bad word about Denis!!!!!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:38am

Let me be the first to say it -- Pig Farm is slop. I left at intermission (something I haven't done in quite a while, but I felt that the show was a waste of time). This play has no business being produced by a top tier theatre with a first rate cast and design team. Ostensibly a comedy, not only did I not laugh once, I never cracked a smile and spent more time checking my watch to get out of there. Greg Kotis' "play" is a sort of overbaked parody of those sex-charged melodramas which were popular from the 40s to the 60s (I was reminded of Postman Always Rings Twice, Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Orpheus Descending, as well as Shepard's recent The God of Hell among others), with its story of the lonely farm wife, the abusive, sexually absent husband and the horny farm hand. There are also a few oblique allusions to the politics of environmental policy which I assume were further developed in Act II. But it's the kind of thing that might be mildly diverting as a 15 minute sketch, but as a full length, two act play it's diffuse, meandering and lacking in substance. And also, it's painfully unfunny, attempting to squeeze cheap laughs from the use of repetitive dialogue -- and Kotis ain't Beckett or Mamet. Stuck with this lousy script, Rando has ratched up his actors performances, which are are highly effected and stylized like they're doing an extended sketch from the Carol Burnett show. Schtick is the order of the day and the ONLY laughs from a bored-looking subscriber audience that I heard were not from any of the dialogue, but from over-the-top stage business, notably from O'Hare. It reminded me of a bad Jerry Lewis movie where Jerry is frantically mugging and making silly faces to the camera to save it.

I don't know. Perhaps I'm too harsh, but if there was a point to this production, I apparently missed it. For me it was a waste of time and the talents of several quite gifted individuals.

[Corine2]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:50am

Yikes. Well, I still can't wait to see Denis. I don't see it till next week. Updated On: 6/23/06 at 10:50 AM

[pinochlehead]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 10:58am

Hey, Margo--
I don't think you're being too harsh. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

[lamentingenvelope]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 12:00pm

Would someone be kind enough to briefly summarize the plot for me? The people I'm taking keep asking me what it's about and the only answer I can give is "I assume it's about pigs." After searching around a little bit the only things I can find are vague references to sex, mud, and staircases.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 12:32pm

After reading this synopsis, I'm SO glad I left at intermission -- and apparently I'm not the only one (the guy that started the thread did too):

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat/d.php?id=278025

[lamentingenvelope]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 12:44pm

Uhm. What?!

I think I'll stick with "Uhhh. Pigs." the next time my mother asks...

[flaemmchen]

Posted: 6/23/06 at 3:41pm

Seeing it Wednesday! I'm very excited.