COLLECTED STORIES Reviews

[LaCageAuxFollesFan]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 11:17am

Not to step on LimelightMike's toes, but today is Wednesday, April 28, marking the official opening of the first Broadway revival of COLLECTED STORIES, from Pulitzer Prize winning playright, Donald Margulies, under the auspices of Manhattan Theatre Club at the Friedman. Previews began April 9. Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulson star in this incarnation.

Ms. Lavin plays Ruth opposite the Lisa of Ms. Paulson. Lynne Meadow directs the production.

According to production notes, "COLLECTED STORIES chronicles the relationship between two female writers - a celebrated New York author and her young protégé. As their fascinating story evolves, and the line between fact and fiction blurs, the twists and turns of this complex relationship weave a play that's as smart and witty as it is powerful."

Best to all involved!

Updated On: 4/28/10 at 11:17 AM

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 12:58pm

"Not to step on LimelightMike's toes,"

But you have stepped on his toes.

If you felt impelled to start this thread, then you shouldn't have mentioned Mike at all. Especially in light of the whole to-do that resulted in the "Promises, Promises" reviews thread.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 1:14pm

"marking the official opening of the first Broadway revival of COLLECTED STORIES"

Actually it's not a Broadway revival because it's never played in a Broadway house before.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 1:17pm

I adore Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulson. Break a leg, ladies!!!

[perfectliar]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 1:40pm

Well what else would you call it? It's a revival, and it's playing on Broadway. So it's a Broadway revival.

[emilyfaye48]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 1:46pm

http://www.ibdb.com/show.php?ID=483663

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 2:02pm

Absolutely loved this production and I'm hoping for great notices for at least Lavin's marvelous performance.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 2:26pm

Although he was never officially appointed to do so, Limelight has done a consistently amazing job of creating these opening night threads.

There is no reason for others to suddenly jump in, but no law against it.

However, the rest of us can always just wait for Mike's official" thread.

And if everyone agrees - including Mike - why don't we just leave this area in his capable hands.

[Ryan4]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 2:37pm

By the standard they used to qualify The American Plan as a new play last season, Collected Stories should also be a new play. I don't think that will happen, because Margulies already has Time Stands Still in the running.

[scaryclowns2232]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 2:49pm

By the standard of "Assassins," or "Oleanna," I would say this is a revival. But we shall see how the Tony Committee rules.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 3:07pm

Fret not, fret not.

As it's already well into the afternoon hours, and LaCageAuxFollesFan took the opportunity to create the thread, I'll 'approve' of this one being the 'official' thread for COLLECTED STORIES. Will happily and humbly return to my post for the final show of the 2009-2010 season tomorrow!

Best,
- M

[RyToast1]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 3:14pm

If all of the posters on BWW could be as gracious and corteous as Mike, this would be a happier place!

Yay for Mike!!

[LaCageAuxFollesFan]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 4:03pm

Thanks Mike for being so kind. Again, just saw it was later in the day than you normally post the thread, so I thought I'd start it. It's been a busy week.

[bway boy]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 4:07pm

Oh what is the big deal about who starts the thread.
Remember people this is just a message board not real life

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 7:31pm

The Hollywood Reporter is very positive, with a love letter for Lavin:

It's easy to see why Donald Margulies' two-hander drama "Collected Stories" is receiving a Broadway revival with this third major production since its 1997 premiere featuring a pre-stardom Debra Messing. This literary variation on "All About Eve" contains two meaty roles for actresses in its portrait of the shifting relationship between a celebrated fiction writer and her young acolyte.
Collected Stories -- Theater Review

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 7:36pm

Variety doesn't like the play but loves Lavin. Beware of major spoilers in their review, however.

Anyone who takes acting seriously would walk a Broadway mile to see Linda Lavin play a distinguished but earthy author who is betrayed by the adoring protege who worms into her reclusive life. Pulitzer Prize-winning scribe Donald Margulies deftly if oh-so-laboriously lays out the groundwork for the final confrontation that allows Lavin to rip her guts out. Manhattan Theater Club a.d. Lynne Meadow, who previously directed Lavin in "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" and helms here, respects her star's firepower and has hired a classy tech-team to prove it. But lordy, lordy, what a boring play it is.
Collected Stories- Variety

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 7:39pm

The AP is very positive, with great notices for both ladies.

Like its set, "Collected Stories" is a solid piece of theatrical craftsmanship — in the expert hands of two fine actresses.
Writers collide in Margulies' 'Collected Stories'

[AC126748]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 7:47pm

By the standard they used to qualify The American Plan as a new play last season, Collected Stories should also be a new play.

Collected Stories has received countless regional and major productions since its debut fifteen years ago, so it should fall under the Tony "classics" proviso. The American Plan has not received the same amount of production/publication, which is why it was considered "new".

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 7:59pm

Isherwood likes Lavin, but it's a short, almost dismissive review of the play. Not sure what to make of it.
NYTimes - Isherwood

[Sauja]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 8:13pm

Not sure I feel he's as dismissive as you, munkustrap. I'll say this: after reading the review, I now want to see the show. Happily, I have about four seconds left to get in through MTC's 30 Under 30 discount. At least Roundabout will still consider me young for another 5 years.

[Q]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 8:47pm

"But lordy, lordy, what a boring play it is."

I can't agree with that statement, and I'd really like to see these two women in those roles.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 9:23pm

Backstage is another rave for Lavin:

But as the tough-minded Steiner, Lavin gives a master class in acting you miss at your peril. Her every intention is visible on her expressive face and in her daggerlike eyes. Many of her flavorful line readings are followed by exactly the right small gesture or shrug to underline the subtext. The most moving and masterfully performed scene is the climactic confrontation between Ruth and Lisa, her former student, whom the older writer now regards as a thief for fictionalizing her youthful affair with a famous alcoholic poet. Instead of playing an emotion—anger—Lavin focuses on her physical life and grounds her actions in specific details. Ruth has been through a debilitating illness and is suffering from a cold. Rather than ranting and raving, Lavin eats soup and cottage cheese, blows her nose and piles on blankets to keep warm. It's a brilliant tutorial in physicalizing an objective—treating her sickness—rather than "acting" a generalized feeling.
NY Review: 'Collected Stories'

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 9:42pm

Based on the snippet of her review, feminist Linda Winer over at Newsday seems to enjoy it (surprise, surprise):

Little wonder that, for the third time since 1997, a New York theater has turned to "Collected Stories." Donald Margulies' drama delivers an engrossing, if somewhat schematic, couple of hours with just a single set and two actors.

What sets this play apart from dozens of others with identical descriptions, however, is that the characters are interesting, intelligent women, for a change

'Collected Stories,' starring Linda Lavin Updated On: 4/28/10 at 09:42 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 10:03pm

Murray dismisses the play, but likes Lavin:

The child that insists at bedtime that a parent read the same story over and over may well be enraptured its plot, but more likely wants to fall asleep to the comforting tones of a loving voice. So when the familiarity of Collected Stories hits you, as it does early and often in the new Manhattan Theatre Club revival at the Samuel J. Friedman, it’s hard to get too worked up about it. The words, after all, are good enough, and they’re delivered with enough care and craft to keep you involved for the requisite two hours and ready to drift off to dreamland immediately after
COLLECTED STORIES - Talkin' Broadway's Review

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 10:58pm

Bloomberg seemed to enjoy Lavin, but dislikes the play:

As an aging New York writer who may have been a one-hit wonder, Linda Lavin runs roughshod over co- star Sarah Paulson, playing the talented protege who quickly surpasses her mentor in Donald Margulies’s “Collected Stories.”
Lavin Bellows at Paulson’s Writer in ‘Stories’: Jeremy Gerard