BECKY SHAW Previews- Page 2

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/3/26 at 9:02pm

I was in G6 and G8 of the orchestra. Right side, but not next to the wall. I missed only an up left corner of the last set, where no action takes place. It's a down center staging, much of it hugging the downstage line, and I was delighted to be so close. In a packed house.

[TarHeelAlan]

Posted: 4/4/26 at 6:02pm

Be sure to check TodayTix for discounts on this show, mostly mezzanine. Row C center mezz is offered for around $100 vs $154 from the box office. Row E center mezz for around $90 vs $125 box office. (TodayTix had a sale on this show end of Feb. and we scored Row A center mezz for $109 vs $179, but that's not being offered currently.)

Updated On: 4/4/26 at 06:02 PM

[Melissa25]

Posted: 4/4/26 at 6:42pm

I should have grabbed tix when they were on TDF but really wanted to be as close as possible without having to hurt my neck. I ended up going with side orchestra G for $112 using the IamBecky discount code. Looking forward to this. 

[Owen22]

Posted: 4/4/26 at 6:44pm

So, just as I remember thinking the first time years ago off-Bway, Becky Shaw is an almost perfect play. What makes it stand out is it seems so cynical, but there's such a great big beating heart underneath. And the comic writing is so expert! But so human. My friend was crying at the end, and he didn't understand why. That's the greatness of the piece. 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 the play). But Alden's was a brilliant stage debut and the rest of the cast were all wonderful. Such great direction, too. A season highlight! Best Play Revival Tony? Could be!!!

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 4/4/26 at 6:54pm

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).

David Wilson Barnes (RIP)

[Falsettolands]

Posted: 4/4/26 at 8:40pm

Linda is pretty exceptional in this and is my personal pick for Best Featured so far. This is probably a perfect play.

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/4/26 at 9:18pm

Just got through Act I. This whole show is a clusterf**k of personality disorders and I am LIVING!!!!

[TheOtherOne2]

Posted: 4/4/26 at 9:55pm

quizking101 said: "Just got through Act I. This whole show is a clusterf**k of personality disorders and I am LIVING!!!!"

This is the best post I've ever seen on this board.  You're about halfway through Act Two as I type. Have a grand time.

[Ptero2]

Posted: 4/4/26 at 11:50pm

Loved the play itself and the performances. Only complaint is that the set was boring and ugly. And then they do a big set transition 3/4ths of the way through just to switch it to... a mediocre interior set?

[quizking101]

Posted: 4/5/26 at 12:13am

Wow. Wow wow wow.


Having gone into this almost completely blind as from knowing a bad first date was involved, this has turned into one of the major surprises of the season. 
From the jump, you are already staring down the barrel of a maelstrom of personality disorders - borderline, avoidant, dependent, histrionic, narcissistic. The gang’s all here and with knives out. It’s a slow build through Act I as we establish the wobbly and blurry relationship between Max and an unstable Suzanne, complicated by Suzanne’s blunt and icy mother. The sudden, unexpected entrance of Andrew into the mix changes the dynamic and stabilizes (so we think) Suzanne and destabilizes Max. Once Becky comes in with smiles, a lifetime of possibly confabulated baggage, and a manipulative streak that would unsettle some professionals (As a psych nurse, I was quite disturbed), the games begin. By Act II, relationships are questioned, motives are assumed, trust is shattered, and the worst traits of everyone’s damaged ego have been set off by Becky’s interloping.

By and far, the walk away winner of the night was Alden Ehrenreich’s Max. He is a man of more than two faces - almost sociopathically code switching between aloof, sarcastic, wounded, and caustic depending on who he is up against, with the only formidable character going against him being Linda Emond’s histrionic, yet calculated mother.  (A subtle example of game recognizing game). Ehrenreich is all but guaranteed a Tony nomination, though Linda Emond did not fully make the same case for me, especially since she opens and closes the play and so much happening in the interim can make one forget she was even there. I will say that the most caustic and cutting lines come from both of them and some of them you feel on a visceral level.

Ball does well as the put-upon Andrew, and Madeline Brewer all but nails the classic borderline personality symptoms in a remarkably convincing and clinically accurate way without giving into the very tempting impulse to oversell it.

A note on Lauren Patten - I do have to push back on the idea that she appears miscast and giving herself over to “capital A acting”. As her character is a dependent personality, she has to rely heavily on her character being a bit more erratic as Suzanne’s psyche can only be regulated by outside validation, especially when it’s compounded by grief. I thought Patten actually struck that balance quite well. 

I agree that the set is confusing and hideous, but thankfully the play itself was strong enough for me to just ignore it.

I know this sounds like a lot of psychobabble to some, but this is all to say that there is a gold mine of richly drawn messes at the Hayes and to sleep on this would be an absolute mistake 

Updated On: 4/5/26 at 12:13 AM