COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA Reviews

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 4:31pm

Nothing out yet (I wouldnt expect it, the curtain doesnt go up for awhile.) But where is the logo at the top of the BWW Page?

[DrTheatre]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 6:05pm

I am very excited to read what the critics have to say...but in the meantime I will keep watching the picture of Brian Smith with his shirt off...yummmmm

Updated On: 1/24/08 at 06:05 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 6:46pm

"The first act was TOTALLY BORING. TOTALLY BORING!"

http://www.broadway.com/gen/general.aspx?ci=559521
Updated On: 1/24/08 at 06:46 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 7:31pm

The AP is Positive:

"The scent of symbolism hangs heavily over "Come Back, Little Sheba," William Inge's early 1950s drama of domestic discord now getting its first-ever Broadway revival.

The play, nearly 60 years old, flirts with soap opera and the most obvious of imagery in the telling of its sad but surprisingly resilient tale.

But if done right - and it is here in a fine production from Manhattan Theatre Club - "Sheba" delivers a heartbreaking portrait of a marriage dissolving in the disappointments of unrealized hopes and dreams.........

In the MTC revival, on view at the Biltmore Theatre, S. Epatha Merkerson, best known for her role as Lt. Anita Van Buren on television's "Law & Order," radiates genuine warmth and generosity. Lola is a nice yet needy woman, and nice isn't easy to pull off if neediness turns to whining.

Merkerson's performance is subtle, just about perfect in finding the right balance between sweet and syrupy. The actress invests Lola with a gentle truthfulness that allows the character to connect not only with the postman and the milkman, but with Marie, a young girl who rents a room in the Delaney's home, located in an unnamed Midwestern city.

Yet Merkerson lets you see that Lola's almost desperate interest in other people is the result of her growing estrangement from her husband, Doc, portrayed by Kevin Anderson. Doc is a chiropractor, who could have been a doctor if he hadn't left school to marry Lola. She was pregnant, but later miscarried........

The minutiae of drab, daily living is depicted with remarkable fidelity, yet director Michael Pressman doesn't allow a sense of fussiness to overwhelm the mundane proceedings. The playwright takes his time in allowing the audience to see what has driven Lola and Doc apart after all these years."




http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNQTHCjpmWyVmr_EfkWWX9-qldzQ

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 7:37pm

At least Broadway.com didn't send the fat one again.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 7:46pm

****SPOILER*****



In the AP review, the critic says that Lola miscarried, but I was under the impression that she had a shoddy abortion. Did I just misinterpret what actually happened when I saw the play, or was the critic wrong here?




****END SPOILER*****

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 8:03pm

For what it's worth, the Broadway.com reviewers (from what I read) thought she miscarried as well.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 8:09pm

I haven't seen it yet (Saturday!!), but... Miscarriage is also called spontaneous abortion. For what it's worth.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 8:11pm

I do believe I assumed it was a miscarriage, or a stillbirth.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 9:51pm

Positive from USA Today.

"Playing Lola, the meek, haunted wife of Doc Delaney, a recovering alcoholic, Merkerson delivers a performance of aching sweetness and devastating sadness. It is by no means a flashy star turn; Michael Pressman directs William Inge's classic account of a middle-aged couple grappling with past and present disappointments as an ensemble piece, so that no character or performance feels less than integral to the whole.

But Merkerson's needy, heartbreaking Lola is clearly the emotional core. When we meet her, she recounts one in a series of recurring dreams about the titular Sheba, her beloved dog, who "just vanished one day — vanished into thin air." Sheba's sudden disappearance actually symbolizes various losses, chief among them that of Lola's youth and its promise, and the death of the baby whose conception forced Lola and Doc (from his perspective, at least) into an early marriage."


http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2008-01-24-sheba-evening_N.htm

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 9:58pm

I enjoy that Julie from Word of Mouth actually is a educated individual.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 10:03pm

People around thought it was dated. I'm laughing now, because my niece just called to tell me she's pregnant.

Merkerson was brilliant in the role. Shocking to see her play such a submissive character.

True range and talent.

I understand that many younger (and sometimes older) theatergoers don't understand the structure of the first act of a good play: EXPOSITION!

You sometimes need to be teased a bit before the payoff can happen.

Any good play, like good sex, needs to tease a bit.

Good Lord, is no one having good sex these days? Or has the "MTV" generation stopped foreplay???

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 10:05pm

Talkin Broadway is Mostly Positive:

"Dreams don’t dissolve into memories in Manhattan Theatre Club’s revival of Come Back, Little Sheba - they all but drown in sunshine. The inexplicable fondness with which this production looks back on the dusty past, curiously, the perfect reflection of its delusional characters who can’t help but spend their days doing exactly the same thing.

In this way, Michael Pressman’s new production of William Inge’s 1950 domestic tragedy is as ideal a mating of concept and material as could be hoped for. But if it’s enough to ensure that the play, at least as acted here by a fine if unremarkable company led by S. Epatha Merkerson, Kevin Anderson, and Zoe Kazan, still packs punch (if a relatively gentle one), it can’t disguise the fact that the play has not evolved as American consciousness has......

Merkerson conveys Lola’s wistful forlornness, stifled spirit, and optimistic nature, but never at the same time. The actress’s characteristic strength is a poor match for a brittle, broken woman who perseveres regardless; Shirley Booth, who originated Lola on both stage and screen, brought an eccentric vulnerability to her that let her be both commanding and cowering. The take-charge Merkerson hits individual beats beautifully, but doesn’t unite them into a fully cohesive character.

Anderson, on the other hand, traverses the treacherous landscape of Doc’s existence with an ease and confidence Merkerson lacks, but tends to disappoint on the close-ups. The scenes in which Doc must be driven to sickness by Marie and Turk’s dalliances or must stumble his way into a violent early-morning confrontation with Lola near play’s end are too dependent on histrionics to satisfy as standalone scenes from Doc’s life......

But except for a few shadowy suggestions of greatness and occasional snatches of melodious dialogue echoing as if from a celestial music box, this renaissance has also decimated the play that Come Back, Little Sheba once was, which challenged a changing country to confront its demons in a very different way than Death of a Salesman did the previous year. This play, so staunchly about breaking free from the confines of an unpleasant past, is now mired in an inescapable one of its own."


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

Updated On: 1/24/08 at 10:05 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 10:14pm

Theatremania is Very Positive for Merkerson:

"S. Epatha Merkerson takes the stage as Lola Delaney in Michael Pressman's modestly affecting revival of William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba, now at Manhattan Theatre Club's Biltmore Theatre, with three strikes already against her -- at least for those audiences familiar with this 1950 drama.
First -- and to some foremost -- she is an African-American woman playing a role clearly meant for a white performer. Inge did not write a drama about interracial marriage -- nor is such a union likely in the play's time period. Further, nothing in Pressman's production ever acknowledges Merkerson's race.

Second, Merkerson doesn't physically fit Inge's description of Lola -- the one-time "prettiest girl in school" turned into a fat, sloppy housewife. The actress is what she probably always was -- an attractive woman still in fairly good trim. (The script has been slightly amended so that Lola is now "almost 45" rather than "almost 40.") Worse, even in her first entrance, she seems not particularly disheveled. (Mind you, Inge reportedly loathed the casting of Shirley Booth, who won both the Tony and the Oscar for the role, as not being pretty enough for Lola.)

Lastly, Merkerson -- as anyone who has seen her prior work on stage, for 14 seasons as Anita Van Buren on NBC's Law & Order, or in her Emmy Award-winning role in HBO's Lackawanna Blues can attest -- is a performer of uncommon strength and intelligence, attributes that can hardly be applied to Lola. So, it's a testament to Merkerson's consummate skill and smart choices that she basically hits a home run -- or at least a solid triple -- eventually delivering a heartbreaking portrayal of an unhappy, frightened, and almost infantilized woman who must finally grow up and face reality after her alcoholic husband Doc (Kevin Anderson) falls off the wagon again."

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/12563

[jbdc]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 10:42pm

Times summary is up

REVIEW SUMMARY
Sometimes, when she stops the restless chatter with which she fills her days and lets the silence take over, Lola Delaney seems to be staring at nothing in the deeply felt revival of "Come Back, Little Sheba." Yet as S. Epatha Merkerson portrays this housebound wife of an alcoholic, in a performance that stops the heart, her gaze is anything but empty. In those moments Ms. Merkerson’s face is devoid of expression, except for her eyes. In them you read, with a clarity that scalds, thoughts that Lola would never admit she is thinking. Because if she did, there would really be no reason for her to keep on living. The marvel of Ms. Merkerson’s performance in this revitalizing production of a play often dismissed as a soggy period piece is how completely and starkly she allows us to see what Lola sees. — Ben Brantley

[Testing1232]

Posted: 1/24/08 at 11:39pm

Good to see that the reviews are positive for the most part. LOVE Merkerson's Lola !!!

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 1/25/08 at 12:40am

Brantly's review for Merkerson is an orgasmic rave. He also thinks the production is pretty much spot on. Congrats!

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/theater/reviews/25sheb.html


Updated On: 1/25/08 at 12:40 AM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 1/25/08 at 1:15am

I guess we can add Merkerson to the list of likely locks for a nod come Tony time. Good for her.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 1/25/08 at 8:19am

Yes, I'd say Epatha just moved up the list a few notches. The way Brantly gushes, he'd hand her awards right now. The play itself too seems very well recieved.

Clive Barnes & John Simon were the two reviews that I read that simply didn't care for it. But jump-starting the heart's of those two men is virtually impossible.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/25/08 at 9:20am

I think Brantley went a touch overboard...I'm also not getting all the praise for Zoe Kazan, she reminded me of Clea Lewis in ELLEN and not in a good way.


That said, I'm glad its getting good reviews. It deserves it.

[Testing1232]

Posted: 1/25/08 at 9:27am

Congrats, and thanks for the "Times" link !!

( I agree that I dont get the high priase for Kazan, but love the production overall)

[geaj]

Posted: 3/3/08 at 10:15pm

Check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8LcsuujMs0