CULT OF LOVE Broadway Reviews

4 stars from TimeOut

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/cult-of-love-broadway-review-leslye-headland-christmas

"Larger themes notwithstanding, Cult of Love is mostly concerned with exploring just such complicated smallness. With an analytic precision that is tempered by sympathy and humor, Headland expertly renders the shifting dynamics and allegiances within the family and the couples: the gang-ups and ambushes, the protective measures and defensive thrusts. And Trip Cullman’s Second Stage production captures that complexity beautifully. It’s there in every inch of John Lee Beatty’s detailed farmhouse set and in Sophia Choi’s perfectly chosen costumes, and especially in the first-rate work of the large cast. Whether singing or sniping or merely stewing, these ten actors don’t hit a false note, and they blend together seamlessly. It's ensemble acting at a shared high level. They do themselves proud."

NYT Critic's Pick from Green

‘Cult of Love’ Review: We Wish You a Wretched Christmas

A hilarious, harrowing holiday gift from Leslye Headland, who brings another unhappy family to Broadway. Zachary Quinto and Shailene Woodley star.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/theater/cult-of-love-broadway-review.html

"That parents burden their children with what they advertise as blessings is the play’s slipperiest mystery. You catch its tail in the way David Rasche, as Bill, performs the forgetfulness of dementia as a kind of liberation. You catch it more fully in the way Winningham’s subtly riveting Ginny legislates reality and, when she can’t, kills it with a pocket veto. Also useful to Ginny is alcohol, a vice she celebrates instead of criticizes because it is her own. As a second course to the pre-dinner wine, she emerges from the kitchen triumphant with a punch bowl of Manhattans.

The rest of the cast is excellent too, in both the showier roles — Quinto as Mark, plunged into despair; Woodley as Diana, devolving into derangement — and the quieter ones. (As Pippa, Roberta Colindrez offers a marvelously tart contrast to the family’s figgy pudding stickiness.) The technical elements are top-notch, intensifying naturalism until it grazes the surreal."

Variety is rather mixed

‘Cult of Love’ Review: Shailene Woodley and Zachary Quinto in Leslye Headland’s Flawed but Compelling Christmas Story

https://variety.com/2024/legit/reviews/cult-of-love-review-shailene-woodley-zachary-quinto-leslye-headland-1236247528/

"There is so much good and sharp in “Cult of Love” — its treatment of grown siblings reckoning with their parents, its tactical observations about how in-laws fit into a family unit — that its slack moments rankle somewhat. Fairly dully written condemnations that Quinto’s and Henderson’s characters toss out against religious faith play now as easy applause lines; I wish they were sharper, because this show has so much going for it. But give “Cult of Love” this much: It leaves the audience on a high. "

Washington Post

Shailene Woodley and Zachary Quinto in a dysfunctional family Christmas

Leslye Headland’s “Cult of Love” feels more like seasonal content than captivating theater.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2024/12/12/cult-of-love-broadway-shailene-woodley-zachary-quinto/

"All of this has a schematic quality that makes “Cult of Love” feel less like captivating theater than that dreaded blanket term for stories that pleasantly pass the time: content.

The feeling isn’t helped by a handful of indignant clapbacks to conservative relatives that play like catnip for liberal applause. Socking it to the homophobes would be one thing if the clashing of views generated much heat; here it has all the vigor of bopping a naughty pooch with a newspaper. Headland, a co-creator of the Netflix series “Russian Doll” and creator of “Star Wars: The Acolyte,” draws the Dahls and their companions with only enough detail to serve their purpose. These are not complex characters brought into conflict by circumstance, but types and viewpoints — the seemingly guileless, narcissist mother; disgruntled adult kids — hashing out predictable conflicts. “August: Osage County” this isn’t."

Deadline

‘Cult Of Love’ Broadway Review: Merry Christmas, Like It Or Not

https://deadline.com/2024/12/cult-of-love-broadway-review-1236200703/

"A Second Stage Theater production steered like a fast-moving sleigh by director Trip Cullman, Cult Of Love boasts an excellent cast (headed by Zachary Quinto, Mare Winningham, David Rasche and, in an impressive Broadway debut, Star Wars: The Acolyte‘s Rebecca Henderson) that pulls off a familiar scenario with unexpected freshness."

Chicago Tribune

Review: ‘Cult of Love’ on Broadway asks why we come home, yet again, for the holidays

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/12/12/review-cult-of-love-on-broadway-asks-why-we-come-home-yet-again-for-the-holidays/

I predicted positive but not glowing reviews, I am so glad there are some raves for this one! It's so worth seeing.