AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE 2024 Broadway Reviews

Sam Gold's production of Amy Herzog's adaptation of Ibsen's play, starring Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli, opens at Circle in the Square on March 18, 2024.

A thread for reviews, critics' and otherwise.

Updated On: 3/18/24 at 02:12 PM

AMNY is mixed (and says he didn't attend the night with the protestors, but it probably would have been more exciting, for those who were offended by the suggestion in the previews thread):

Review | ‘Enemy of the People,’ with Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli, mirrors today’s politics

https://www.amny.com/entertainment/broadway/review-enemy-of-the-people-broadway/

"The first half of the production (which runs two hours with a just brief pause instead of an intermission) contains some questionable design and directorial choices, including extremely dim lighting in order to emphasize the use of candle-lit lamps inside Stockmann’s house, a rectangular set design that resembles a hockey arena, and foreign-language folk songs during scene changes. Much of the acting feels stiff and stodgy, which is often the case in revivals of Ibsen plays with rare exceptions (such as last season’s revelatory Broadway revival of “A Doll’s House”).

A- from Entertainment Weekly

Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli do brotherly battle in An Enemy of the People

https://ew.com/an-enemy-of-the-people-review-jeremy-strong-michael-imperioli-8610065

"No doubt fans of Succession, The Sopranos, and The White Lotus will be flocking to the Circle in the Square to see Strong and Imperioli do their thing in such close quarters. And they will not be disappointed. The actors are tremendous and completely lose themselves in the parts. But as audiences file out of the theater, they may also find themselves confronting some much thornier issues — issues that 140 years and thousands of miles have not dulled in the least. A–"

Holdren in Vulture is positive:

Ibsen, Translated Into American: An Enemy of the People With Jeremy Strong, Michael Imperioli, and drinks on the house.

https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-review-an-enemy-of-the-people-strong-imperioli-gold-herzog-ibsen.html

"Herzog and Gold have cleared away any fustiness (which really lies not in Ibsen but in us) and have drawn out Enemy’s inherent muscularity.

Their two leads are also a real asset here, and not for their famous names. As the brothers locking horns at the play’s center — the principled Dr. Thomas Stockmann and the political animal Mayor Peter Stockmann — Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli both bring a vigorous contemporary affect to the material. You can feel the toughness and tension, the roiling potential energy, of their more modern characters flexing within David Zinn’s costumes, which land us softly in the 1880s without feeling rigid in their period accuracy. Just as Michael Shannon and Paul Sparks did with Waiting for Godot last fall, they find a uniquely American tone that, rather than creating dissonance, only highlights the play’s fundamental solidity. "

Washington Post is mixed.

Climate activists disrupting Jeremy Strong was the best part of the play

The ‘Succession’ star’s Broadway revival of ‘An Enemy of the People’ is weirdly underwhelming

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2024/03/18/jeremy-strong-enemy-of-the-people-broadway-review-climate-activists/

"

But the production’s puzzling lack of fire (despite beautiful, lantern-rich lighting design by Isabella Byrd) originates with the good doctor himself. Strong carries Thomas’s convictions like a loose hand on a briefcase, maintaining a placid composure even as he makes a deadly discovery and then gets battered by betrayals trying to expose it. Famous for his extreme-sport acting approach, Strong seems alive to every moment onstage but not fully implicated in their consequences — even when the latter leave him curled up on the floor.

The gears of Ibsen’s logic turn at a modest pace — how does Thomas not immediately get that fixing the water problem would be expensive? — allowing audiences to jump ahead and watch the characters catch up. Dramatizing the delayed epiphanies of a supposedly brilliant man is tough, and Strong takes an understated approach. Ditto to his indignant oration calling his haters an ignorant and complacent horde. After the blazing cries of real protesters, Strong’s delivery seemed all the more subdued."

Hollywood Reporter is positive:

‘An Enemy of the People’ Review: Jeremy Strong and Michael Imperioli Set Off Sparks in Visceral Distillation of 1882 Ibsen Drama

Sam Gold directs the Broadway revival in a new adaptation by Amy Herzog, who penned last year’s scorching update of the Norwegian dramatist’s ‘A Doll’s House’

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/an-enemy-of-the-people-theater-review-jeremy-strong-michael-imperioli-broadway-ibsen-revival-1235854269/

Theatrely is mixed:

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE: Watered Down, Liquored Up — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/an-enemy-of-the-people-watered-down-liquored-up-review

"though the climate protesters who disrupted the performance I attended certainly brought its flaws into starker relief, Amy Herzog’s watered-down adaptation was already a lost cause.

It must be said the cast – which also features Michael Imperioli as the doctor’s brother, the town’s corrupt mayor – turns in fine performances, though Sam Gold’s direction guides the production toward an unnecessary slower-burn. (David Zinn’s costumes, and dots’ scenic design, naturally, are also gorgeous).

Herzog’s take on the material, attempting to soften Ibsen’s grandiloquence, smoothes out the characters’ stances. Dr. Stockmann is not a very compelling character; he essentially makes his discovery in the play’s first scene, then spends the remaining four rallying against the opposition. It’s not dramatically dynamic, but the righteousness is the point. Here, he hedges. He wants to believe the politicians and even doubts his own evidence."

Updated On: 3/18/24 at 10:15 PM

USA Today is positive:

'An Enemy of the People' review: Jeremy Strong leads a bold and necessary Broadway revival

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/03/18/enemy-people-broadway-review-jeremy-strong-michael-imperioli/72946126007/

"Strong is astounding as Thomas, resisting easy histrionics even as tensions reach their boiling point. Soft-spoken and even-keeled, he imbues the character with a deep well of sadness, not only for his late wife Katherine, but for the willful ignorance that’s afflicted his community.

At one point, Thomas naively suggests to his daughter, Petra (Pedretti), that they move to America, where they “won’t have to worry” about being attacked for their staunchly progressive views. (“When you’re fighting for truth and justice, don’t wear your good pants,” he wryly reminds her.) The exchange received knowing laughs from the audience, and in lesser hands, could read as too on the nose. But beneath the bumper-sticker idealism, Strong’s finely tuned performance captures the simmering fear and exasperation of living in a world that values profits over people."

The Wrap is mixed, or maybe somewhat, if glibly, positive:

‘An Enemy of the People’ Broadway Review: Jeremy Strong Makes a Great Dr. Fauci

The “Succession” star returns to the Gotham boards in an Ibsen revival that’s short, swift and politically pointed

https://www.thewrap.com/an-enemy-of-the-people-broadway-review-jeremy-strong/

"It’s the Covid pandemic all over again at the Circle in the Square, where a radically pared-down version of Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” opened Monday.

Best of all is Jeremy Strong’s Dr. Thomas Stockmann, who vividly recalls Dr. Anthony Fauci, especially when this good Norwegian doctor is warning a town about the dangers of an impending epidemic.

The only problem with making “Enemy” a blow-by-blow retelling of Trump and Fauci’s battles is that what we all endured in real life a few years ago was so much more dramatic than what’s being offered onstage under the direction of Sam Gold."

Four stars from The Telegraph:

An Enemy of the People: Jeremy Strong brings fervour and nuance to his first lead role on Broadway

The Succession star’s commanding performance makes Anna (sic) Herzog’s adaptation deserve its status as one of the season’s hottest tickets

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/an-enemy-of-the-people-new-york-succession-jeremy-strong/

"Gold, whose recent Broadway projects – a Daniel Craig Macbeth and Glenda Jackson King Lear – were big messes, takes a sensibly traditional approach with this production. At times, it could use more vigour, but thanks to Strong’s presence this Enemy of the People is, deservedly, one of the season’s hottest tickets."

DTLI Consensus: A well-executed and timely play revival, buoyed by a Strong lead performance.

11 positive (including the NYT), 3 mixed.

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/an-enemy-of-the-people/

Daily Beast is a rave:

In ‘An Enemy of the People,’ Jeremy Strong Finds His Way From ‘Succession’ to Broadway

OH BROTHER!

A new adaptation of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People,” also starring Michael Imperioli, beams directly in to 2024—and a plea to support those confronting stifling authoritarianism.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-enemy-of-the-people-jeremy-strong-finds-his-way-from-succession-to-broadway

"For one, both Succession and this adaptation, directed by Sam Gold (who is married to Herzog) know how to crunchily position drama and wit, profundity and comedy, alongside one another. This brilliant Enemy of the People is notably funny in both its smarts and pacing, and even its later gathering darkness—when Stockmann is viciously trounced and isolated by his townsfolk—is studded with light, and the certainty of his self-preservation."

Looks like there’s a front-runner for Best Play Revival.