History Boys Reviews

LA Times is a Rave:

"Every once in a while, a play comes along that helps you understand why you keep coming back to Broadway despite its rampant commercialism and overpriced mediocrity. That satisfying feeling, a clear sign that you're in the presence of true originality, is hard to explain, but you know it from the tingling rush of enjoyment that envelops you during the performance and the savored memories that linger long afterward.

"The History Boys," the Alan Bennett play that opened Sunday at the Broadhurst Theatre in a magnificent remount of the National Theatre of Great Britain production featuring the same glorious cast, offers the kind of unabashedly eccentric thrills that can be had only in the theater. Which is to say in the company of others equally appreciative of characters whose heightened peculiarities end up revealing us most truthfully to ourselves. Though it's already been adapted into a film (scheduled to be released after the Broadway run), anyone heading to New York should experience the work in all its vertiginous splendor onstage."
http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-et-history24apr24,0,6753526.story?coll=cl-stage-top-right

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Good for them...I'm glad I saw it when I did, as it looks like the student rush will be going out the window after the 30th (though I do think they should keep the front/side seats that are obstructed for students).

There's always SRO for a repeat visit.

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my love for The History Boys is so intense it caused a double post!

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Updated On: 4/23/06 at 08:19 PM

my enthusiasm for the Boys knows no bounds

i was like: YAY

POST POST POST

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Talkin' Broadway Review

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The NY Times is very Positive:

"The seats in the Broadhurst Theater are no softer or wider than the ones in most Broadway houses, where the penalty for playgoing is almost always fanny fatigue. Yet for the entire, substantial length of the "The History Boys," the madly enjoyable play by Alan Bennett that opened last night, you somehow feel nestled in a plump armchair that has been custom made for your body — a perch that you are reluctant to leave, even after more than two and a half hours of sitting.

The components that induce such unexpected comfort are not ergonomic but theatrical, and of a seductive polish that New York audiences have seldom experienced of late. ________________________________________________________________

Mr. Bennett may have serious things on his mind, but he and Mr. Hytner take a cue from the classic entertainers of the music hall: variety and timing are what hold a restless audience's attention. Musical numbers, video sequences, scholarly debates, the acting-out of vintage movie scenes, moments of shocking emotional nakedness and wry internal monologues travel cheek by jowl here, with a cast in which every member stands out as an individual worthy of attention. Then there is the lure of Mr. Bennett's dialogue, as shimmering and warming as a fine Cognac. As befits a play about precocious, irreverent students — a category to which the 71-year-old Mr. Bennett still seems, on some level, to belong — "The History Boys" is a bright brooder with a strong streak of the showoff.
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There's never a patch of dead air. When you think about the show afterward, you may judge it occasionally guilty of some of the sins ascribed to Irwin, especially glibness at the expense of authenticity.

But while you are watching Mr. Bennett's boys of all ages, you're too enthralled to keep such critical notes in your head. That's because he so successfully adapts another dictum from Irwin. No matter what you do, Irwin counsels his exam-bound students, remember that history must be entertainment. Mr. Bennett, with less cynicism and more heart, applies the same rule to the teaching of history, with compellingly watchable results."



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/24/theater/reviews/24boys.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin

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The AP is a Rave:

"Hector, a large, rumpled teacher at an English boys' school, has what his headmaster calls "an old-fashioned faith in the redemptive power of words."

So does playwright Alan Bennett, whose latest work, "The History Boys" began a triumphant engagement Sunday at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. It is a remarkable play in a remarkable production, graced by the splendid original cast from the National Theatre in London.

Directed by the National's artistic head, Nicholas Hytner, "The History Boys" is both intellectually rigorous and emotionally affecting. And very, very funny. It's filled with warm, often gentle humor, a comic spirit that grows out of situation and character.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-theater-history-boys,0,127057.story?coll=sns-ap-entertainment-headlines

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Yep

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i'm so happy for everyone involved with The History Boys.

this truly is a wonderful play and all their hard work is paying off.

yay.

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Aside from what may end up being across the board rave reviews, History Boys also has the added credential of being last year's Olivier winner for Best Play and the very nature of the play and production have the sort of prestige and cachet that the Tonys like to be associated with. It would appear to be the heavy favorite to win Best Play this year.

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*knocks on wood*

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What's the deal with Samual Anderson/Rudi Dharmalingam (Crowther)?? When I bought my tix Wednesday the board said Dharmalingam was going on, he was in on Saturday, and he's in the Times photos. Did Anderson make the hop across the pond, or is he just ill?? Just curious.

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aaaah Jamie Parker....

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