CLYBOURNE PARK Reviews

Eager to see the reviews as well. I saw the show last week and was not impressed. This won a Pulitzer Prize? What I didn't "get" were the gasps of shock in the audience over the racial jokes. Really? It wasn't even the delivery that made it shocking so I couldn't give that to them.

Patash, honestly do not know Raisin in the Sun so if I can speak as someone merely attending this one show then wouldn't that say it is a flaw for someone attending without prior knowledge of the first one? I would hope the show could stand on its own merits. So unfortunately - I didn't have the same connection as you.

I was not offended in the slightest by anything and yes it was appropriate for the show. That was the point - it was fitting into the subject matter and the audience reaction was as if it suddenly happened and was not expected. Sorry for not making myself more clear. I was surprised that the audience around me found offensive to the point of audible shock and awe. The dialogue and jokes fit the show but they were expected even when the cast was doing the "I'm going to one up your joke" part. A lot of it felt tired and has already been done before. All In The Family show even crossed my mind with me thinking "haven't I seen this on a situation comedy before?"

Yes - agree - better than yawn but what I really enjoyed was one big old guy sitting in the box seat with the deepest heartiest belly laugh, enjoying himself, giving himself a frequent knee slap and just being into the show. That was great to see.

That is my point exactly Patash - you got it. I want to know the same thing. Why was the audience shocked? Why were they gasping?

OK, another cup of coffee and now I think I'm with you. I get it. Thanks. I guess my response now would be the same as frogs_fan85.

Kad...hilarious - I've never seen Christina Kirk perform before and I found my eye gravitating to her a lot. When she opened her mouth and spoke I kept thinking Edith Bunker...dumb stuff coming out of her mouth. The only difference is that Edith was actually smarter than she appeared and both of Christina's characters just 'played' dumb to me without Edith's intelligence behind it.

Agree - the deaf character was just the butt of jokes.

I also did not like the opening of each act. Thought the dialogue about cities and places in both acts to be a "WTF" way to start this before we get into the drama.

First review of the night.

Entertainment Weekly is positive (A):

"The aforementioned jokes may be questionably funny — high-minded liberal mom-to-be Lindsey (Annie Parisse) calls them 'disgusting,' 'juvenile,' and products of 'the worst possible type of obsolete bulls--- stereotypes.' (We know she's liberal because she tells us: 'Half of my friends are black' and 'I used to date a black guy.') Bruce Norris' drama, however, is indisputably, uproariously funny, and a quietly evocative mediation on the by-no-means-obsolete stereotypes that pervade millennial melting-pot America."

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20588543,00.html

It's funny... what EW pointed out is exactly why I HATE the play. I feel like it TELLS you everything about the characters rather than SHOW you. It's all "let me describe myself" in a totally inorganic way.

amNY is positive (4 stars):

""Clybourne Park," Bruce Norris' shameless and brilliant satire of race, liberal attitudes, white flight and gentrification in suburbia, ought to have transferred straight to Broadway right after its lauded Off-Broadway premiere at Playwrights Horizons two seasons ago.

After being produced around the country and in London and winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the entire Off-Broadway cast has reunited for a much deserved Broadway run."

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/theater-review-clybourne-park-4-stars-1.3671399

Pulitzer or not, I thoroughly enjoyed this. If I'm laughing heartily and crying almost uncontrollably during a performance that is my best measure of fulfillment. Without spoiling anything, the second act reveals connections to the characters in the first act which deepens the significance of the issues dealt with in the piece. I felt like I was treated to two mini-stories which were melded into one powerful assessment of where we are, and where we were with regard to race relations.

Talkin' Broadway is positive (that's two positive reviews in a row for Murray... hell must be freezing over):

"But Clybourne Park continues to work — and, one suspects, will for many years to come — because its underlying assumptions about who the most accepting are, and just how seriously they take their tolerance, always seem to be correct. Ask anyone in either time period and they'd all scream that no horrific words would ever escape their lips. And you'd believe those protestations just as easily as you do the anger and the resentment they reveal when they say them aloud. They've found niches within their social and cultural worlds, but haven't found satisfaction. Can't it be right there, in front of them all, in this house that has promised advancement and freedom for three generations of black and white alike? It can be, and it is. But Norris reminds us that you haven't a prayer of seeing it, or anything else, until your eyes are well and truly open."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/index.html

Newsday is positive

"The play -- which opened Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2010 before regional stagings, an Olivier from London and the Pulitzer -- has finally gotten to Broadway with director Pam MacKinnon's original impeccable production and cast. While the tragicomedy struck me two years ago as a bit tidy compared with Norris' earlier and more dangerously messy "The Pain and the Itch," I'm now appreciating "Clybourne Park" on its own important and enjoyable terms."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/clybourne-park-an-edgy-look-at-race-1.3669124

Nice to see that she's jumping on the bandwagon this time since she feels like she missed it last time around...

Updated On: 4/19/12 at 09:11 PM

Reading people's responses to the play, I can see and respect them. When I saw that play last week, however, I thought it was solid and still think so. I wasn't shocked by any of it - figured it was there for us to observe. I think it's strength is in the contrast of the two acts.

Theatremania is positive:

"With the often-scathing, hilarious, and thought-provoking satire, Clybourne Park, now at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre -- two years after its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons -- playwright Bruce Norris proves once again why he's one of the theater world's shining lights, and why this play was so deserving of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize. And Pam McKinnon's expertly directed, thrillingly acted production does this extraordinary work full justice.

No doubt, there will be plenty of post-show discussion about the themes of racism and social change that Norris explores in the play -- while simultaneously splitting open your sides -- but savvy theatergoers will also be talking about the playwright's gifts for ingenuity and craftsmanship."

http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/04-2012/clybourne-park_54736.html