.....do I want to see Jerusalem

[jbm2]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 3:25am

Heading back to town next week and want to catch some more shows. I have seen pretty much everything thats playing....
Wondering if Jerusalem is worth seeing?

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 3:30am

Yes!

[fosca3]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 3:40am

Words just fail

Don't miss it -- it is simply an icredible show to experience

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 4:52am

Can't tell you if you WANT to see it, but the performances are insane. Mark Rylance and Mckenzie Crook are NOT to be missed.

[wendilin622]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 5:28am

I am so excited it just extended so I can go again this summer! Go see this!

[GimmeABreak2]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 9:36am

It's wonderful, definitely go.

Posted: 6/1/11 at 10:19am

You don't want to see Jerusalem, but your nose itches and you kind of feel like a milkshake.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 10:28am

Definitely see it, just prepare yourself. It's INTENSE. In the best possible way. Certainly not my favorite play of all time, but a completely unforgettable experience. At the very least, go for Rylance.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 9:37pm

Yes, you do.

I had a hard time getting into the first act because I really couldn't understand what they were saying, but as soon as I got used to the accents it was wonderful.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/1/11 at 11:37pm

I saw it this afternoon and really didn't get the hoopla surrounding it. It has some really stunning moments (particularly in the second and third acts) but I thought it was kinda pretentious. And, while I thought Rylance was wonderful, I hardly thought he gave the seizmic performance others claimed he did. I think Joe Mantello is giving a far better performance in THE NORMAL HEART. And John Gallagher Jr. was .. really bad. The set was incredible, as was the lighting design, sound design, and direction. But as a play, I didn't love it. It's definitely different and not for everyone.

[once a month]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 9:08am

awww...go see it and decide for yourself if it was worth all the hoola

[silversurfer2]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 10:29am

I loved the play and thought Mark Rylance was outstanding. And MCkenzie Crook & the rest of the cast were terrific. I thought John Gallagher Jr. was fine as well. Go and see it and make up your own mind.
WICKEDROCKS: What was so "bad" about Gallagher's performance? Just curious.
Updated On: 6/2/11 at 10:29 AM

[wonkit]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 11:01am

I was also at yesterday's matinee. The set and lighting were some of the most impressive I have ever seen. Loved MacKenzie Crook, who is compulsively watchable and has wonderful timing (although someone give the guy a sandwich - he is SO emaciated). I thought Rylance was incredible (I missed both BOEING, BOEING and LA BETE, so this is my first exposure to him), although he sometimes seems so aware of the audience that I occasionally found myself thinking "Look at me, I'm acting." My biggest problem was the play itself, which could use some judicious trimming, especially in Act Two which seemed to go on forever and not really add much. I was so exhausted by the end of the play that the earthshaking ending found me with little energy or empathy to spare for Rooster Byron.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 11:14am

It's a very odd recurring thing that I've seen on the message boards: a requirement of empathy for the characters in a play. Not every play is seeking its audience to empathize with a character's situation and I don't think that's the case with the end of Jerusalem at all. I think this phenomenon is the result of too much simple-minded entertainment, starting with the disintegration of Hollywood film product in the late 1970s. Not everything needs to be boiled down to white hat-black hat good vs. evil simplicity. Johnny Rooster Byron is a much more complex character than that and the morality and behavior of the character is multi-layered and complicated - much like real life.

[wonkit]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 2:28pm

I said empathy, not sympathy. I don't expect to "like" Rooster - he makes that pretty near impossible - but I do expect to have an understanding of his plight that has some emotional weight for me as an audience member.

And it is possible to be empathetic towards evil characters - to understand their situation and motivation. Otherwise Iago would not be the thrilling character he is.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 4:33pm

I think that empathy for the character is not the point of that ending. I think Jerusalem is a threnody for the loss of stature of a country and a culture. It's England here, but it could just as easily be the US or any once great world power. At the same time, the play is a plea for the wild, the natural, the untamed in a era of the homogeneous (the "New Estate" of McMansions encroaching on Rooster's Wood), while yearning for greatness, the mystical, the larger than life in a mundane daily life marked with hopelessness, desperation and dead-end existence. I don't care to empathize with Rooster's situation at the end of the play, but I was truly knocked out by what the play was saying at that point.

[Blockhead24]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 8:00pm

WickedRocks, I agree with basically every word you wrote

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 8:31pm

I disagree with two of WickedRocks' points. 1) Gallagher was fine. Not bad but fine. 2) Rylance, in my opinion, gave a superior performance to every actor this season. In my LIFE, it was the best performance I have seen. And just to put that statement into some perspective, I have seen over 200 plays in New York and over 100 plays regionally.

[tamra2]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 8:42pm

SAVE YOURSELF!!!!

i saw it this past weekend and honestly it was one of the worst pieces of theater I have had the misfortune to see.

Let me provide some general thoughts:

I do not usually enjoy plays, only saw because of Gallagher... the rest of the audience seemed to be enjoying

The set was great, and I also thought all the acting was great. Although I felt tortured during the show I felt like I was not watching actors but actually watching real life unfold as if the characters were real people (few exceptions with very minor characters)

I just do not get the point. It is three acts that do not "fly by" as most people would say. If i wasn't OCD i would have just walked out during intermission or even the "pause" but I cannot let myself do that

Many things happen in it that really can just be cut out... no point!

[binau]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 8:48pm

Tamra2, what plays have you enjoyed?

[wexy]

Posted: 6/2/11 at 9:16pm

I saw it Wednesday afternoon. Thought it was good but not great...Crook and Gallagher and Rylance is very good as well but it didn't do anything for me. Saw both La Bete (plus the original) and Boeing Boeing.