COLLECTED STORIES Reviews- Page 2

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 11:00pm

New Jersey Newsroom is positive, with another rave for Lavin:

Manhattan Theatre Club's nicely-tooled Broadway edition of "Collected Stories" stars Linda Lavin as a feisty Jewish writer passing her later life in a Village apartment brimming with books and memories.

Talk about perfect casting for a greatly gifted actress: The wry character of Ruth Steiner fits Lavin just as naturally as designer Jane Greenwood dresses the lady in slightly bohemian clothes.
Linda Lavin brings ‘Collected Stories’ to life

[ashley0139]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 11:01pm

Boring this play is not. It's not fireworks or spectacle, but it's brilliant dialogue and thrilling to watch the two characters evolve over time. I found myself sitting in the seat, not wanting any scene to end and yet wanting to know what was coming next for these two characters and their relationship.

I find these reviews' almost omission of Sarah Paulson odd. They all write love letters to Lavin, rightfully, but seem to gloss over Paulson. Although she is a little old for the role, I thought Sarah Paulson was absolutely brilliant. Her change over the 6 years the play is set was stunning.

I wish so much that I could see this show again. It's funny and heartbreaking and, I thought, so moving. Then again, I relate so much with the character of Lisa.

Updated On: 4/28/10 at 11:01 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 11:02pm

Theatermania is very positive:

There are two kinds of silence in theater: the silence that falls between two or more characters at a crucial dramatic moment and the utter silence that falls over an audience when someone on stage is revealing something so profoundly that all breathing in the auditorium seems to cease. Both types of silence occur during Lynne Meadows' glowing revival of Donald Margulies' Collected Stories, now being presented by Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Collected Stories Updated On: 4/28/10 at 11:02 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 11:05pm

The Faster Times is mixed to positive:

But if “Collected Stories” eventually focuses on this issue, its main pleasures come from watching two good actresses explore their evolving relationship in six scenes over six years, starting with a visit Lisa, then a graduate student, makes to the cluttered Greenwich Village apartment of Ruth, who is her teacher. Lisa becomes Ruth’s assistant, protégée, friend, and then a literary star eclipsing her mentor.
Collected Stories Review: Stealing A Life For Literature

[lull89]

Posted: 4/28/10 at 11:24pm

B+ from Entertainment Weekly, in a 3 sentence review. Here's one of them:

Lavin is relishing, but not milking, her role as a writer/professor/reluctant mentor; Deadwood's Sarah Paulson is ever-so-slightly (perhaps appropriately) grating as her sycophantic protégée.
Stage Review Collected Stories Reviewed by Melissa Rose Bernardo

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/29/10 at 5:36pm

Mixed to positive from NY1. He hardly addresses Lavin's performance, except to say that she uses a lot of tissues. He's pissed about it.


Review

[MiracleElixir]

Posted: 4/30/10 at 1:17am

Dismissive??? That Isherwood review was damn near close to a rave.