INDECENT Reviews

Time Out (Adam Feldman) is a rave (5 stars):

"The very notion of live theater contains an intimation of its future: dead theater. Now the play is before us, moving and breathing along with its audience; then it is done, and banished to the shadow realm of memory. This is true not just of a single performance but also of the run of a production—even The Phantom of the Opera will one day throw in the mask—and, writ larger, of entire theater worlds. Sometimes such worlds age and fade with time; sometimes, as with Yiddish theater, they are violently erased.

Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman’s gorgeous Indecent is written on the palimpsest of that erasure. "

https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/indecent-1

NJ.com is mostly positive:

"If "Indecent" doesn't land as forceful a dramatic punch as it might have, that's probably because we never fully invest in any of the characters -- of the more than forty figures in the script, only "The God of Vengeance" author Sholem Asch (Max Gordon Moore) and the show's meek but devoted stage manager (Richard Topol) have full arcs.

Then again, that may be Vogel's point, that transcendent theater takes on a character, identity and history all its own. The play's the thing -- and "Indecent" is a very good one indeed."

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/04/indecent_broadway_review_paula_vogel_play.html

Jeremy Gerard:
http://deadline.com/2017/04/broadway-review-indecent-1202071471/

Chris Jones:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/broadway/sc-indecent-broadway-review-ent-0418-20170418-column.html

Updated On: 4/18/17 at 08:13 PM

That Deadline review is a RAVE. Thrilled to see it. I thought this show was astonishing. Possibly the best thing I've seen this season (though I still have some catching up to do!)



i hope oped this little show can find an audience. It deserves it.

Murray is harder to please than others, but he certainly does give positive reviews. And truthfully, it's not like his reviews have ever mattered much anyway.

This has been on my list for a while, and the reviews make it really sound fascinating. I hope to catch it soon!

BroadwayConcierge said: "NYTimes is out. Brantley calls it "decent."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/theater/indecent-review-paula-vogel-broadway.html

"

I'd call this review mostly positive. I feel like Brantley was using the word "decent" to mean human decency not as a one word summation of his feelings on the play.

Mike66 said: "I've read the Brantley twice. It reads not only very "positive" but also very "important."

And yes, "decent" as in "decency" not as in "meh"

The only thing lacking is the "critic's choice" check-mark.

Lots of really good pull-quotes, if the producers want them."



To me it honestly almost seems like an oversight not getting critic's choice. It's a very positive review

Charles would never have forgotten to put a Critic's Pick stamp on something with music recycled from his club days.



I'm sure it's intentionally not a "pick," but am glad it is mostly a positive review. Sadly less so than most of the others.

Yeah, Brantley's review definitely reads like he is pulling his punches because of the show's subject.



Jesse Green, however, does not pull his punches in his mixed (skewing negative) review.

http://www.vulture.com/2017/04/theater-a-holocaust-meta-history-in-paula-vogels-indecent.html

I saw this last night and am still overwhelmed this morning. What an absolutely beautiful piece of theatre. Its story, how it's told, the staging, the music, and the cast all make for an extremely moving night.

I've seen many of the new plays this year (and enjoyed many of them, particularly "Oslo", but for me this is the stand out.

I would definitely urge anyone who is on the fence about getting a ticket to go.

Also, just a note about seating: I got my seats on TDF and we were seated first row orchestra on house right (BB) and the view was great.

After seeing this last night, it's a shame to see the slightly dismissive tone of a few of these reviews, since I was moved in a way that I haven't been in quite some time. Indecent is a gorgeous production of a powerful play. It is, as tiresome as this phrase already is just a few months into the Trump presidency, startling in its urgency and relevance. One moment, in particular, caught me by surprise and immediately made me start crying.

As moved as I was, the play isn't grim or overly heavy. Towards the beginning, it's quite fun to watch the company come together and tell the story of this play. You could compare it to Shuffle Along in a sense, although I think this play is much more successful. Shuffle Along was focused on the individual players, which resulted in a busy and unfocused play. In Indecent, the focus is trained much more on the broader themes (anti-semitism, homophobia, the power of the theatre) and it was much more successful as a result.

Vogel's text is great, but Rebecca Taichman's direction is what makes the play soar. It's theatrical in the best sense, with the movement of the seven players working beautifully with the music and musicians. She manages the difficult feat of keeping the world of the play spinning while never losing the audience as the narrative travels years and countries. The last scene (without giving its effect away) also genuinely took my breath away. It's impressive work, and ideally she should win a Tony for her efforts.

The cast is a tight ensemble, and all of them have lovely moments over the course of the evening. I was especially taken by Adina Verson as several naive and young women, and Richard Topol as the evening's de facto narrator, Lemml. Topol is the only actor who plays only one character throughout the evening and by the end of the play functions as the beating heart of the whole evening.

I can't stress enough that this play should be seen. Shows like this are rarely seen on Broadway, and while it seems like Indecent won't turn into a runaway hit, I'm so happy it's made the trip uptown. In a way, it mirrors the journey of God of Vegeance, which feels like a lovely full circle moment for this forgotten slice of Jewish, queer, and theatrical history.

Saw it this afternoon. So glad I went. Was a bit choked up as I left.

It deserved the nominations. Wonderful acting and the staging is beautiful.