High Reviews- Page 2

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 9:54pm

The Faster Times is negative with fine things for Turner (ANOTHER review to mention Equus and Agnes of God):

“High,” a play starring Kathleen Turner as a tough nun who tries to save a drug addict, is playing on a street of Broadway that has become a drug corner: Right next door is “The MotherF**ker With The Hat” and across the street is “Jerusalem,” both also involving drug users. “High,” though, has little in common with these superior plays. It actually shares more with last year’s “Looped,” which was created by the same team, playwright Matthew Lombardo and director Rob Ruggiero. “Looped” focused on a colorful grand dame of the theater, Tallulah Bankhead, wonderfully portrayed by Valerie Harper. “High,” too, has an awesome actress at its center, Kathleen Turner. “Looped” had the basics for a good play, Tallulah and her famously bawdy witticisms, but undermined its best material with a character that seemed less than credible and dialogue less than likely. The same could be said of “High,” except there is no great wit at its core, just bawdiness: The nun uses foul language.

Kathleen Turner gives us a no-nonsense performance that is the reason to see this downer of a play meant to give us the gritty truth about addiction, but that feels too much like a recipe: Start with a base of “Equus,” sprinkle with a little “Agnes of God,” stir in some R-rated spice and unpalatable grit, and serve in a bowl of Lifetime movie, heaped high."

http://thefastertimes.com/newyorktheater/2011/04/19/high-review-kathleen-turner-on-broadways-new-drug-corner/

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 9:56pm

It wouldn't shock me if this closed on Sunday.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 9:57pm

I'm not a Newsday subscriber, but from the title, it's negative for the play with kind words for Turner again...:

The title is "Turner's great, writing's not in 'High'".

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/turner-s-great-writing-s-not-in-high-1.2827488

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 9:58pm

Adamgreer, it wouldn't shock me if it closed tomorrow. (Or today for that matter).

[dramadude]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 9:59pm

I don't know what show these guys saw, but I was impressed and enjoyed it. There were some slow parts and the acting was definitely better than some of the material, but this show deserves much better than these crappy reviews.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:02pm

I agree with the reviews. The script is atrocious, the dialogue laughable, and the characters are stereotypes with no depth. The performances transcend the material. It's getting the reviews it deserves.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:02pm

I expected these reviews even though I enjoyed it (extreme flaws and all). Oh well...

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:02pm

That's certainly your opinion (which you have the right to maintain). I personally find these reviews to be spot on. It's a cliche mess.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:06pm

The New York Times Review is up!!! It's negative, but not horrible. There's lots of praise for Turner, though not much for the show.
Isherwood Reviews:
http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/theater/reviews/high-with-kathleen-turner-review.html
"Ms. Turner convincingly exposes the raw wounds beneath the leathery exterior and the urgency of Sister Jamie’s need to believe in the possibility of redemption."

But the last paragraph is rough:
"But most of “High” consists of fraught tussles among the three characters over Cody’s fate and the tough love necessary to put him on the right path. Liberally sprinkled with jargon from the scripture of recovery programs, with a further layer of religiosity, the play is essentially a high-toned version of one of those addictive series about addiction that have become a subgenre of the reality television boom. Whether you prefer the foghorn drawl of Ms. Turner or the more soothing tones of Dr. Drew, of “Celebrity Rehab” fame, is essentially just a matter of taste."

Updated On: 4/19/11 at 10:06 PM

[CapnHook]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:09pm

The running cost for the show has to be NOTHING...unless there's high salary for its talent. Close tomorrow? I can't see that but it is fathomable. Perhaps it'll last til Tony nominations and if it doesn't get any nods, that could be the day they choose to take the show off of life support.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:11pm

The review from the Wall Street Journal is up:
Very critical of Turner, has some praise for the men. Very negative overall.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704004004576271382261019872.html
"Was Kathleen Turner ever an actor? Maybe, but she's not one anymore. All she does nowadays is waddle onstage and hawk the self-parody that long ago became her stock in trade. To say that Ms. Turner plays an alcoholic nun in Matthew Lombardo's "High" comes close to giving away the whole game."

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:13pm

Village Voice is up - very negative as well,
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2011/04/kathleen_turner.php
"Alas, for the most part, High gave me a crisis of my own. It made me lose faith in Broadway."
Ouch.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:13pm

Isherwood is pretty rough on Jonigkeit. The kid is not getting the raves people were expecting (which makes me happy because I thought his performance was as textbook as the script).

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:15pm

I knew the critics were going to savage this. The play was not altogether successful, but I've seen far worse plays that have gotten raves, like this season! I feel the author has talent, but he has a problem structuring his plays effectively.

But he and his play were sitting ducks. He had a flop last year, and he doesn't have the cool and hip cachet of the critics' darlings whose wretched works have been greeted with acclaim.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:15pm

New York Magazine is very negative as well.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/theater_review_an_over-the-top.html
"Saints be glazed, there’s a miracle on 45th Street, and lo, it is High: In a penguin-infested season that includes the likes of Sister Act and Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister, this intervention melodrama manages to establish itself as far and away the campiest panoply of nunsense now onstage. That burlesque isn’t the intention here—the play is deadly serious, I’m afraid—only aids its ascent to the heights of hilarity."

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:19pm

And the lone positive review from the Philadelphia Inquirer (note that Jonigkeit is from Philly):

"Jonigkeit is asked to make many extremes convincing - the crafty controller, the kid getting high, the vulnerable self-hater, the furious denier. Yet High is the furthest thing from a melodrama you could imagine, and Jonigkeit's portrayal never comes anywhere near that trap. The entire cast is directed for absolute realism by Rob Ruggiero, who also staged the musical Ella, a production that played Annenberg Center last month.

...

High suggests no easy or comforting answers, which makes it a bold offering for Broadway. Its characters may suffer, but the searing play suffers from nothing - and includes a cast whose work is as indelible as High itself."

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/120182354.html


ETA: I find it amusing that he says "High is the furthest thing from a melodrama you could imagine". Every other review criticizes it for being melodramatic. Now obviously all critics are allowed to have opinions, but melodrama is essentially a genre. Regardless of the quality of the writing, High is CERTAINLY melodrama. And for him to say that this ISN'T melodrama somewhat exposes him as illegitimate. Updated On: 4/19/11 at 10:19 PM

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:20pm

The Philadelphia Inquirer is a RAVE!!! Huge praise for Jonigkeit (who is from Philly - the article seems a bit biased to be honest), for Turner, and for the whole production.
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/120182354.html
"In High, Jonigkeit's is an angry, bitter, ruined character who has no visible father, whose dead mom was a druggy and a whore, and who's been on his own since an early age. The role demands everything he can give (and includes a defiant scene of onstage nudity), and there's no other way to say it - Jonigkeit is an intense theatrical force. He has an uncrackable defiance, plus the moves of a kid who's taken every drug ever sold on a corner."

"High suggests no easy or comforting answers, which makes it a bold offering for Broadway. Its characters may suffer, but the searing play suffers from nothing - and includes a cast whose work is as indelible as High itself."

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:21pm

bjh - we need to stop posting these things at the same time.

Interesting how we both picked up on the potential bias regarding Jonigkeit. The critic seems to be head over heels for him.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:22pm

Haha, right?

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:26pm

The running cost for the show has to be NOTHING...unless there's high salary for its talent. Close tomorrow? I can't see that but it is fathomable.

CapnHook, between the theatre rental cost and Turner's salary, I assure you they are not meeting their weekly nut. PLUS, they apparently have absolutely ZERO advance. If the reviews are negative, the advance won't increase. Look at Glory Days. I guarantee you that show was cheaper to run than High, and it closed on opening night.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:31pm

bjh - I think we may be on to something.
Since I have no life, I googled Howard Shapiro (The Inquirer Reviewer) and Jonigkeit to see what I'd come up with.
Here's a review Shapiro wrote of him in a Philly production of "Picnic" back in 2008 when he was a rising star. He probably saw him grow and couldn't resist giving him a rave for his broadway debut. I also like "strikingly good-looking."
"Evan Jonigkeit, in the Montgomery Theater production, is outstanding in the role - strikingly good-looking, and he moves through A. Clark Duncan's front-porch set with the natural grace of a racehorse. You can sense his Hal thinking about how he's going to win people over - or how he has, once again, lost their goodwill."

Updated On: 4/19/11 at 10:31 PM

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:31pm

Bloomberg is super negative with only 1 star:

"Each of the three characters in Matthew Lombardo’s play carries a secret that will be revealed in painful detail before the curtain falls.

None of them makes any more sense than the character of Sister Jamison herself: She talks the talk of a woman on intimate terms with street life, substance abuse and various sins of the flesh. But she recoils in horror at the unpleasant details of Cody’s history. What street was she living on, Rodeo Drive?

...

Lombardo, a recovering addict, has written an imitation of a play with background music by Vincent Olivieri that is determined to add ponderousness to every moment not already given over to it by the writing."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-20/kathleen-turner-s-swearing-nun-helps-hustler-in-high-review.html

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:33pm

Good find, broadwaydevil. Methinks Shapiro has a critic crush.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 10:37pm

The AP is a rave:

""High," which opened Tuesday at the Booth Theatre, treads carefully into issues of faith and human nature, asking whether we can ever change and if we can ever come clean. It is nicely written and has not bitten off more than it can handle, even if the audience might want more answers.

The play is helped by two stunning performances — by Turner, who pretty much never leaves the stage, and Evan Jonigkeit, making his Broadway debut as the addict Cody. Watching these two angry, broken, world-weary animals circle each other is an uncomfortable pleasure."

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13414113

[April Saul]

Posted: 4/19/11 at 11:28pm

Hmmm...Not only did I like High, but I work at the Philadelphia Inquirer (google me, too, if you don't believe it) and am a friend and co-worker of Howie Shapiro, who I very much doubt has ANY kind of crush on Jonigkeit.

Or if you still think Howie does, then does Mark Kennedy of the AP, who said "It is a remarkably brave performance from an actor it would be wise to keep tabs on" of Jonigkeit have one, too?

Guys...there are actually some of us who like this play, posters and critics alike; deal with it!