HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews- Page 2
HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#26
Posted: 10/12/06 at 1:17amApparantly you missed a lot. It doesn't take place on a boat.
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/16/05
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#27
Posted: 10/12/06 at 1:27am
I don't mean to go back to the Broadway.com thing, but what's so wrong with those reviews? I mean, they seem sort of in line with the real reviews. And their complaints may be low-brow (too long, people fell asleep, demanding on an audience), but they're also pretty accurate. I'm just confused by the negativity towards this idea. Seems like there's a place for it. Now, if they love Losing Louie, that'll be different!!
Updated On: 10/12/06 at 01:27 AM
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#28
Posted: 10/12/06 at 8:25am
Well Finally...the review from the DAILY NEWS, this I agree with. Thank you Joe Dziemianowicz!
DAILY NEWS = Mostly Negative
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/theater/story/461040p-387885c.html
The Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of "Heartbreak House" begins with a woman seated on a couch, asleep.
She's not the only one I saw catching zzz's during this enervating production that ran aground last night on Broadway.
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The satirist Shaw uses the house to represent England and wartime indifference. The timeliness is clear. But Robin Lefevre's listless direction and torpid pacing, together with lackluster performances, rob the play of its wit, sting and linguistic richness.
Bosco, a veteran of both Broadway and Shaw, is a big surprise as he mumbles several of Shot-over's zingers. Rabe, lively as a cagey young woman, and Camp, who blusters broadly as a creepy capitalist, fare the best in the bunch.
John Lee Beatty's versatile set sufficiently evokes the sea and rotates to reveal an outdoor area in Act III. Jane Greenwood's wardrobe reeks period chic and sheik (Hector dresses like a swashbuckler), but Kurtz's seriously unflattering getups are more boo-hoo than boho.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#29
Posted: 10/12/06 at 8:30am
Clive Barnes at the NY POST is also negative and gives the production only 2 stars.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10122006/entertainment/theater/half_hearted_affair_theater_clive_barnes.htm
IT wasn't so much a heartbreak - more like a troublesome case of heartburn.
George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak House" is one of those classic plays that promises more than it delivers - but rarely has it delivered so little as it did last night at the American Airlines Theatre in an oddly flaccid staging by the Roundabout Theatre Company.
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Despite a strong cast led by the estimable Swoosie Kurtz and the redoubtable Philip Bosco, the play just lies flat on the stage, as disconsolate as a discarded party favor after the ball is over.
Mind you, the surgery that British director Robin Lefevre has carried out on Shaw's hapless carcass hasn't helped much. In the cause of brevity, he's cut out a vital character - a burglar - who has much the same Cockney humor with which Doolittle, the dustman, enlivens "Pygmalion."
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Yet "Heartbreak House" - with its ending of an ironically disquieting air raid and sense of a civilization going down for the count - can be given a certain poetic flamboyance that's lacking here.
The acting is a little too measured, perhaps too tidy. Lefevre's direction rightly emphasizes the central role of the stealthily opportunistic Ellie, and Rabe - talented daughter of playwright David Rabe and Jill Clayburgh - has the right kind of wan radiance.
Yet, like John Lee Beatty's unexpectedly dowdy settings (Jane Greenwood's stylish costumes are far more to the point), the performances are surprisingly routine.
Where brilliance was needed, only competence glimmered through.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#30
Posted: 10/12/06 at 9:33amI am shocked that Isherwood raved about this show...at least I agree with some of the reviews though (Post, Daily News). I honestly expected it to get panned in all the papers.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#31
Posted: 10/12/06 at 9:37am
Isherwood wrote like he knew too many people in the cast personally or something. i, too, was surprised about his review but noted how vague it was to the actual acting for half of it.
halfway through the NY Times review i was like "DID WE SEE THE SAME SHOW?!"
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#32
Posted: 10/12/06 at 9:38am
"halfway through the NY Times review i was like "DID WE SEE THE SAME SHOW?!" "
I thought the exact same thing! Oh well...
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#33
Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:16am
for what its worth, AM NEW YORK didn't like it much either and only gave it 2 stars...
http://www.amny.com/entertainment/stage/am-heartbreak1011,0,7068987.story?coll=am-homepage-mezz
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"The production lacks both theatrical spark and a sense of dramaturgical unanimity. It is almost as if each member of the cast is performing in a different show, displaying a different type of acting or level of emotionality. Also disconcerting is the trouble that the cast has with reciting the original text, accents and all.
Lily Rabe, for instance, is a competent young actress who made her Broadway debut two seasons ago in 'Steel Magnolias,' but she seems out of place and out of league compared with her coworkers. Philip Bosco, who has appeared in numerous Shaw plays throughout his career, still appears to be growing into the commanding role of Captain Shotover. But Swoosie Kurtz, who¹s trying out Shaw for the first time, is quite hilarious and even authentic in the supporting role of Hesione Hushabye.
Ironically, this week also marks the opening of the similarly titled 'Hell House,' an offbeat cross-section of experimental theater, haunted houses and Christian fundamentalism in which theatergoers take a 45-minute tour of an elaborate haunted house filled with pregnant cheerleaders, drug addicts and gay teenagers.
'Heartbreak House,' on the other hand, which obviously has a far greater literary importance, unfortunately lacks the very vivacious theatricality that animates a unique experience like 'Hell House.' In spite of its ability to offer fine actors and a challenging script, Roundabout¹s revival of 'Heartbreak House' never adds up to the sum of its parts, and never achieves the heartbreaking catharsis that its author would have wanted."
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Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#34
Posted: 10/12/06 at 11:27am
When Brantley has total disinterest in a show, they send Isherwood.
Same happened with Hot Feet.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#35
Posted: 10/12/06 at 12:15pmWell whoever they send for "Times They Are A-Changin'" - which I'm hoping is Ben - I can't wait to read the biting, snippy jabs for that one.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#36
Posted: 10/12/06 at 12:18pmI'm also agog at Isherwood--yeah, he usually wears kid gloves, but these are oven mitts. I mean, the actors clearly didn't know their lines when I saw it, how can that be interpreted as anything other than incompetent? I'm not saying the actors are without talent, but without preparation. Very surprised.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#37
Posted: 10/12/06 at 2:20pm
The set rotates to reveal the sea in the third act?
Sounds cool. Too bad I left before Act Three began.
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#38
Posted: 10/12/06 at 3:13pmWow, I didn't know that Lily Rabe is Jill Clayburgh's daughter!
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#39
Posted: 10/12/06 at 3:17pmYes and David Rabe, the award-winning playwright (Hurlyburly, Streamers, Sticks and Bones).
re: HEARTBREAK HOUSE Reviews#40
Posted: 10/12/06 at 3:19pmDon't get too excited, munk. It just revolves and we see the outside of the large windows. You can't really see the water, but there are some christmas lights that twinkle.
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