HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews
HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews
HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#0
Posted: 10/11/06 at 8:15pm
Didn't see a Review like yet...so I decided to start this one. I'm certainly not expecting these to be impressive, but let the fun begin...
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#1
Posted: 10/11/06 at 8:24pm
Well, here's a repeat of mine from last night. (The final preview):
Oh god...I actually had to leave. I waited until the third act set reveal and then fled...
Usually, I love this play. It should have the texture of the Old Salty Dog, surrounded by the the salty sea air on a ship that no matter how moored still sits in hilariously ironic turbulent seas.
This production, however, needs salt. Bland, and boring. Like a bad chowder.
Rabe and Bosco try to season this production, but are lost in a soupy sea of bad stock. No one seems to get the humor.
The direction is so boring and uninspired that it's hard to recognize the play. No wit in a witty play. Even the set had no sense of the stranded chaos that should transpire. The lighting was effective enough for me--the first act's slow autumnal nightfall allowed me to lull to sleep enough for a good nap.
Then the second act moonlight doesn't make sense physically. How did we go from amber to blue with no sense of time or season. Even the costumes were boring and bizarre--Swoozies floozies were just out of period and didn't help her forced comic readings.
Robins was fine--she can handle the bitchy Brit well, but her "correct" accent, just confused things as no one else seemed to stick to one dialect.
Shaw is always about "class"; if the accents actors use don't reflect the subtleties of Shaw's language, all is lost. It's just not funny. I would have preferred a ridiculous "Three Penny" approach of just working at pissing off an audience to make them feel somewhat alive. (At least I stayed around for that crapfest...)
Oh well. At least I'm satisfied in thinking that Lily Rabe is a force to watch out for. I'm excited to see what her career holds for her.
OK. Curious to see what the papers have to say after tonight...
This production was a BIG miss for me.
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#2
Posted: 10/11/06 at 8:25pm
http://www.broadway.com/gen/General.aspx?ci=538492
Audrey, Phyllis, and Vincent LOVED it, especially Swoozie and Bosco.
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/23/06
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#3
Posted: 10/11/06 at 8:27pm
I wonder if the panel will ever give bad reviews.
They should have sent the 6 year old.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#4
Posted: 10/11/06 at 8:28pmI bet those people will never give a bad review.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/05
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#5
Posted: 10/11/06 at 8:29pmThat Word of Mouth thing is awful...they write these short little reviews that tell you nothing. Thanks for the link, though, at leastr I'll know everyuthing will be raved on broadway.com from now on.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#6
Posted: 10/11/06 at 8:39pm
Did they find them in a diner? Who are these people? It's refreshing to hear "real" people talk about theatre, but some literacy would seem to be appropriate for Shaw.
Although the set is a "poop deck"--it still needs salt.
Now I really want to read The Post.
EDIT: To appease my typo.
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
Stand-by Joined: 11/20/03
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#7
Posted: 10/11/06 at 8:51pm
Those in glass houses, Mr. literate Tom. It's spelled HEAR...
I think they're sort of cute. I know plenty of places to go for full (and often bitter) written reviews when I want them. It's nice to HEAR a different perspective. It's certainly not hurting me the way it seems to be offending some of you...except that I wish I had been chosen to do it!
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/05
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#8
Posted: 10/11/06 at 8:56pmI don't mind raves, but they apparently have a word limit, which really detracts from their opinions.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#9
Posted: 10/11/06 at 9:01pm
Well, I'd love to HERE you're review of they're review of reviewing you.
And thays would be myu literate litter. And my house is more plexi than glass...
Fun, fun...and theirs a tongue in that cheek...
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#10
Posted: 10/11/06 at 9:03pm
Well I can't say I agree with any of those panel reviews from Bway.com. Here's the link to my review when I saw it. I think its just a complete mis-step of a production from top to bottom with only a few brief moments that work.
https://www.nycriticscorner.broadwayworld.com/heartbreakhouse.htm
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#11
Posted: 10/11/06 at 10:05pmAnd you all know I thought it was crap.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#12
Posted: 10/11/06 at 10:07pm
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/
Talkin' Broadway is extremely negative.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#13
Posted: 10/11/06 at 10:13pm
Kuchwara for the AP is positive
AP
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#14
Posted: 10/11/06 at 10:37pm
USA Today gives it three stars:
"Suffice to say that House is, beneath its urbane surface, a dark, sobering piece of business. The trick in staging it is to mine both the breezy wit and the sense of foreboding that increasingly envelops Shaw's privileged, petty characters.
In the Roundabout Theatre Company's new revival at Broadway's American Airlines Theatre, that task falls to a cast of accomplished pros. Under Robin LeFevre's sturdy, reverent direction, the actors certainly capture the cerebral tang of Shaw's dialogue.
Swoosie Kurtz brings a wry swagger to the role of Hesione Hushabye, an aging heartbreaker holding court at her father's swank home in the English countryside. Laila Robbins is suitably stuffy as her similarly glamorous, flirtatious sister, Lady Adriadne Utterword, exiled years ago after marrying, in Dad's words, a "numskull" (albeit a titled one).
Byron Jennings puts a droll spin on Hesione's own dashing but vapid husband, whose obvious affection for his wife doesn't preclude lustful thoughts about Adriadne or another, younger guest, Ellie Dunn. Lily Rabe, the daughter of Jill Clayburgh and David Rabe, proves crisply fetching as this ingénue, one of Heartbreak's more appealing inhabitants, who is being courted by her father's decidedly unappealing friend.
Yet only a few of the players here manage to summon the poignancy underlying Shaw's dense prose. They include Bill Camp, who as Ellie's suitor finds pathos in a capitalist pig, and John Christopher Jones, who exudes an easy tenderness as Ellie's pure-hearted but economically challenged dad.
The ever-reliable Philip Bosco shines in another sympathetic role, that of Hesione and Adriadne's father, Captain Shotover. The cranky patriarch is entrusted with some of Shaw's most pungent and revealing lines, and Bosco serves them with a wry grace that's ideal.
It's the one performance in this Heartbreak House that matches the power and elegance of the text.
Well, almost."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2006-10-11-review-heartbreak_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#15
Posted: 10/11/06 at 10:38pmI'm baffled by the two positive reviews. Well, at least they're getting some good notices.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#16
Posted: 10/11/06 at 10:41pm
Theatremania is Positive:
"Ultimately, it doesn't. Still, it's spellbinding, and Robin Lefevre's current production for the Roundabout marvelously casts the required magic spell. It's a proud tribute to Shaw's purpose. For a company often content with the second-rate, this could be its finest hour, surpassing the same outfit's well-done Major Barbara of five years back."
________________________________________________________________
"The glory of Lefevre's treatment is that he plays up the work's pluses so effectively that the minuses are all but completely banished to the shadows. Set designer John Lee Beatty, who's never at a loss when it comes to putting up an intriguing house, carefully follows Shaw's explicit instructions that Captain Shotover's residence is literally ship-shape. Jane Greenwood, never at a loss when required to provide clothes that look as if they've graced the pages of the best fashion magazines, outfits the men splendidly and the women with even more panache; the slinky Hesione's garb looks like skins for the snake that invaded the garden of Eden, while Ariadne has a second-act gown with a full skirt that resembles a curtain going up on a fabulous opening night. Tom Watson's wigs for the ladies cascade like waterfalls.
Now let's make merry over the ensemble. To a man and woman, including Jenny Sterlin as a no-guff household retainer, they're very close to perfection. Bosco, who was Tony-nominated as Boss Mangan in the 1983 Rex Harrison-led revival, is puckishly philosophical as he broadcasts that million-dollar voice of his. Robins looks as regal and behaves as regally as the script specifies. Kurtz, in her flaming-red wig, slinks around as if she's boneless but not toothless, since she bites into everything she says.
Jennings, who turns up in a desert prince's get-up for a while, does Hector's flighty swagger well. Camp is hilariously serious as the eventually flummoxed Mangan, Jones is an appealingly comfortable Mazzini, Saxe is nimble as Randall. And Lily Rabe, looking remarkably like plucky Mary Pickford, gives the production's best performance. She's magnificently authoritative as the forthright Ellie, the whipped cream on top of this heartening Heartbreak House."
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/9194
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#17
Posted: 10/11/06 at 10:48pm
Baffle. Baffle. Baffle. What show did they see? Kuchwara's review reads like it was written before he saw it. USA's has some points, but, WOW!
I'm always glad for good reviews. (Really, schadenfreude is only fun sometimes...) But, I also want some acknowledgement that I'm not a complete idiot... (I hear enough about me on this board anyway 
)
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#18
Posted: 10/11/06 at 11:09pm
Variety is also Positive:
"Staging Shaw well is never straightforward, and doing right by "Heartbreak House," the playwright's indictment of the complacent leisure class he felt was driving Europe toward its ruin, is especially tricky. The 1917 play starts as a comedy of manners that flirts with farce before lurching into a darker mode of despair cloaked in loopy cynicism. Even thematically, it's hard to pin down, ruminating on marriage and morality, class and respectability, business and politics, self-reliance and providence. So it's a pleasant surprise that director Robin Lefevre and a sparkling ensemble tame the unruly material into a sound, stimulating production.
______________________________________________________________
In addition to Bosco and Rabe, there are some impressively tuned instruments in the cast. Crowned in flaming ringlets and costumed (handsome work by Jane Greenwood) like she's about to go on in a Greek tragedy, Kurtz is hilarious as regal, unflappable Hesione, brutally blunt and with an endless appetite for mischief. Robins' wonderfully droll Lady Utterword has all the grand gestures and airs of a woman who has distanced herself from her "horribly bohemian" family but is far less conventional than she appears.
Jones is warm and winning as Ellie's ineffectual father, again not nearly as clueless as he seems, while Saxe is amusingly self-deprecating as infantile fop Randall and Jenny Sterlin milks wry humor out of the housekeeper role.
As the pumped-up blowhard who reveals his weakness, Camp works a touch too hard at conveying bluster first and befuddlement later, and Jennings, while always capable, seems an imperfect fit for suave lightweight Hector.
But those weaker notes are not fatal ones and this ultimately is a satisfying, impeccably designed production of a clever, complex play that's probably easier to get wrong than right."
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931831?categoryid=33&cs=1
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#19
Posted: 10/11/06 at 11:34pmI am literally shocked by these reviews. Wow!
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#20
Posted: 10/11/06 at 11:35pmI'm shocked too, Munk. The entire evening was a bore...I don't know how I stayed awake through the interminable Act 2.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#21
Posted: 10/11/06 at 11:41pm
It still sounds like they're all being re-written from bad college term papers: Quote Shaw and pepper it will generous adjectives...
I wish I had woken up the people around me in the theatre last night long enough to ask them what they thought.
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#22
Posted: 10/11/06 at 11:50pm
NY TIMES is also positive, by Isherwood as well.
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/theater/reviews/12hous.html
I am trully stunned by these reviews. By no means are they raves, but I thought it was trully a dreadful production. Tomorrow LOSING LOUIE opens, and I thought it was a delightful, entertaining evening of theatre - I'm sure they'll rip it to shreds. Talkin Bway being the only review I agree with so far is highly unusal.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#23
Posted: 10/11/06 at 11:53pm
Same here.
Well, nevertheless, I congratulate them on their nice reviews.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#24
Posted: 10/11/06 at 11:59pm
Hear, Hear, Munk! I'm always glad when Roundabout get their due...
Still... zzzzzzzzzzzz
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
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