DOUBT Reviews

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 6:53pm

Thought I'd get the thread started.
The first one is from Broadway.com:

DOUBT
By Eric Grode
"Doubt is Broadway's most satisfying drama since Copenhagen, a terrific entertainment that challenges and comforts at the same time.

And yet… John Patrick Shanley's intelligent potboiler has grown since its Manhattan Theatre Club run, and not always in a good way. From the very first moments, where Father Flynn (Brìan F. O'Byrne) greets his parish with a newly protracted silence, director Doug Hughes asks us to chew a bit longer on the lessons being offered. Just because these lessons are worth savoring doesn't mean the play benefits from such elongation.

As far as moral inquiries go, Doubt is surprisingly enjoyable. It finds the humor as well as the starch in Sister Aloysius, who believes the heretical "Frosty the Snowman" should be banned from the radio. But Shanley, who's making his long-overdue Broadway debut, is also wrestling with complicated notions of faith and sin. The moral choices that each character makes, the evasions and compromises that so often come with doing the right thing, weigh heavily on the innocent as well as the guilty. And as Shanley cannily points out, differentiating between the two is not always easy."

Seems very positive. I think I'll have to add this one to my list.

For the whole review click the link below.
Broadway.com "Doubt Review"

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 6:56pm

hahaha.. you are 2 minutes late
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=844267

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 6:57pm

HAHA! Considering your taste Tiny, I'd say you should be the last to act high and mighty.

[TheGaIsSilent]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 7:04pm

ATC, by Matthew Murray

A play this thoughtful, this well-crafted, this passionate is hard to ignore and even harder to resist.
Talkin Broadway

[Razz77]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 10:08pm

I always get so confused when the review threads aren't a nicely compiled list that is gradually added to as the night goes on by Margo. Looks like the reviews are SURPRISE SURPRISE positive so far. Keep adding them.

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 11:01pm

any more?

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 11:02pm

Most papers will just reprint the rave reviews that they gave it in November.

[Razz77]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 11:10pm

Surprising - The Post and Times both arent up yet...hrmpf...Nor is Theatermania...

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 11:11pm

They already reviewed it Off-Broadway, so I doubt they'll print new reviews as it transfered with the same cast intact.

[Razz77]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 11:34pm

No, I'm pretty sure the reviewers go back once it transfers, as the show has changed and it is technically a different "production" (well, sort of). I'm sure Brantley will be reviewing the Spelling Bee with bells on -- other off-Broadway transfers in the past have always been reviewed on Broadway (I Am My Own Wife and Golda's Balcony, to name two off the top of my head)

[Mattio98]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 11:39pm

Well I don't know who reviewed Doubt off-Bway but the Times website says that Brantley reviewed it.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 11:52pm

Almost every single major critic is re-reviewing it...

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 11:53pm

Yes, I'm sure Brantely will take his own crack at reviewing Bee because Ishterwood reviewed it Off-Broadway.
But as Brantley was the Times critic who originally reviewed Doubt, there is no reason for him to review a production that is essentially more or less the same as the one he has already reviewed.
I could be wrong.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 11:54pm

according to broadway.com it's not really the same production...

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 12:03am

Im not sure who is just running their same reviews or who is doing new ones, but there will be reviews from the major publications tomorrow. Good Lord - did you folks read that review from Matthew Murray - I think he just made LOVE to a play! And I wholeheartedly agree. I think I'll bump my Doubt review incase anyone wants to reread it.

[Razz77]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 12:10am

Brantley's full review isn't up yet, but here is the "excerpt" that is posted on the Times site. I'm sure the full review will be up in a matter of minutes.


"One woman’s monumental certainty shines as harshly as a naked light bulb amid the shadows of "Doubt," the tight, absorbing and expertly acted new drama by John Patrick Shanley. Sister Aloysisus, who sets "Doubt" in motion by pursuing her intution that a priest is molesting a boy in her school, is of a different order from wimple-wearing gargoyles. As written with an uncanny blend of compassion and detachment by Mr. Shanley, and as acted by the splendid Cherry Jones, Sister Aloysius is a triumph of hard-won conviction over human indecisiveness and a testament to the pressures of remaining sure in a world where, to borrow from Oscar Wilde, the truth is never pure and rarely simple. The performances of Ms. Jones and Brian F. O’Byrne, as the young priest who may or may not be too fond of the school boys in his charge, are master classes in the use of body language and vocal inflection to convey internal conflict. "Doubt" itself, directed with artful reserve by Doug Hughes, is more complex than surface descriptions might suggest." — Ben Brantley

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 11:33am

Brantley's NY TIMES Review

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/theater/reviews/01doub.html?

Kissell's DAILY NEWS Review

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/theater/story/295338p-252822c.html

Barnes POST Review

http://nypost.com/theatre/22917.htm

Winer's NEWSDAY Review

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etledew4196825apr01,0,5813365.story

Kuchwara's AP Review

http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/THEATER_DOUBT_REVISITED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-03-31-22-35-21


Some are rereviews, some are brand new, but one things for sure - These are some of the best reviews I have ever seen for a Broadway play! I couldn't be happier for it, it is most certainly deserving of it!

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 11:33am

Brantley's NY TIMES Review

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/theater/reviews/01doub.html?

Kissell's DAILY NEWS Review

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/theater/story/295338p-252822c.html

Barnes POST Review

http://nypost.com/theatre/22917.htm

Winer's NEWSDAY Review

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etledew4196825apr01,0,5813365.story

Kuchwara's AP Review

http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/THEATER_DOUBT_REVISITED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-03-31-22-35-21


Some are rereviews, some are brand new, but one things for sure - These are some of the best reviews I have ever seen for a Broadway play! I couldn't be happier for it, it is most certainly deserving of it!

[magruder]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 1:58pm

Some others...

Elysa Gardner, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2005-03-31-doubt-review_x.htm

Michael Sommers, Newark Star Ledger
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ledger/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-2/1112334850183500.xml

Jacques Le Sourd, Journal News
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050401/LIFESTYLE01/504010309/1134

David Rooney, Variety
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117926693?categoryid=33&cs=1

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=reviewsNews&storyID=2005-04-01T002726Z_01_N31297996_RTRIDST_0_REVIEW-REVIEW-STAGE-DOUBT-DC.XML

Malcolm Johnson, Hartford Courant
http://www.ctnow.com/stage/reviews/hce-doubtrev.artapr01,0,6529765.story?coll=hce-headlines-theaterreviews

Bob Feldberg, Bergen Record
Review link

Updated On: 4/1/05 at 01:58 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 2:00pm

Dammit. It's going to be a horse race between Turner and Jones - I really want Turner to win, but she's not Broadway's Sweetheart...

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 2:04pm

Rath, I just made my second trip to VIRGINIA WOOLF, and I'm sure that it's Kathleen who'll be accepting the Tony, much as I love Cherry.

Also, the Times just re-printed Brantley's original review.

[BoyWithTheBugle]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 2:05pm

Turner does not have a chance, Cherry is out of this world! It's amazing to think it is the same person that you see on the stage.
Turners doing Turner, Cherry is a masterpiece.

The show deserves all of this and more.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 2:06pm

Turner is certainly not just doing Turner. She was doing Turner in THE GRADUATE, but not here.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 2:07pm

Turner is not doing Turner - that's called great acting - making you believe she is the character.

[magruder]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 2:24pm

I think either performer stands a good shot at winning. I wouldn't put it squarely in either court. And let's not forget Natasha Richardson is still to come. She's notorious for trying a million things during previews and pulling out incredible performances by opening night.