Is He Dead? reviews

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 5:41pm

Variety is highly positive


Is He Dead?

By DAVID ROONEY

He cemented an enduring reputation as a novelist, short story writer, humorist and essayist, but Mark Twain never cracked the challenge of becoming a playwright, despite multiple stabs. When it was rediscovered in 2002 and published the following year, the unproduced 1898 comedy "Is He Dead?" was greeted as an amusing curio, but reviews seemed to confirm Twain's suspicion that he lacked the fundamental tools to write for the stage. So it's a welcome surprise that in its Broadway premiere, director Michael Blakemore, adapter David Ives and a spirited cast led by human whoopee cushion Norbert Leo Butz have turned this trifle into a ripely enjoyable confection.

Blakemore knows his way around farce, having scored one of his biggest hits with the original London and Broadway productions of Michael Frayn's "Noises Off," which reinvigorated the genre by matching the comic chaos onstage with even more absurd antics happening backstage among cast and crew.


Variety - Is He Dead

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 5:45pm

Hollywood Reporter is highly positive.

Forgotten Mark Twain play makes Broadway debut

By Frank Scheck

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Chin up, all you struggling playwrights. Hang in there long enough, and you'll eventually see your fledging effort produced on Broadway.

Of course, it might take more than a century, as evidenced by this premiere production of "Is He Dead?" a rollicking farce written by a talented up-and-comer named Samuel Langhorne Clemens. You might know him better as Mark Twain.

This theatrical exhumation arrives thanks to a scholar who came across the manuscript while poring over Twain's papers in a California university library a few years back. Written in 1898, the play was unpublished, never produced and essentially had been forgotten.

Now it's being given a spiffy, first-class production in a version that has no doubt been freely adapted by veteran playwright David Ives ("All in the Timing"). While clearly it is no comedic masterpiece from the author of such works as "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The Prince and the Pauper," the sheer volume of laughs it produces demonstrates that it's no mere historical curiosity, either.
Hollywood Reporter - Is He Dead?

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 5:46pm

I hope the reviews continue to be positive, this is such a fun show and Norbert Leo Butz gives a wonderful performance.

Why doesn't BWW have the show's logo in the top left corner?
Updated On: 12/9/07 at 05:46 PM

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 5:47pm

Wow, Rooney fell in LOVE with Butz, didn't he. As well he should.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 7:08pm

Associated Press is positive

A Painter's Demise Produces Profits

By MICHAEL KUCHWARA
AP Drama Critic

NEW YORK (AP) - Norbert Leo Butz in crimson ringlets and silk taffeta (pink in the first act and robin's egg blue after intermission) is a sight to behold.

Done up in drag, the actor is the fireplug who jump-starts "Is He Dead?" _ a long-lost Mark Twain farce adapted by David Ives and directed by Michael Blakemore with a sure ear for language and an even surer eye for physical comedy. Their teamwork is one of the most felicitous collaborations of the season.

Farce is the theatrical equivalent of a wind-up toy. It requires some exertion before the mechanics kick in and produce (one hopes) the required laughs. And so it is with "Is He Dead?" Act 1 marks time, dutifully laying the groundwork for the inspired antics of the play's riotously funny second half.
Associated Press - Is He Dead

[Dollypop]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 7:57pm

I want to see this play for two reasons: a) I understand it's quite good and n" Millet's "The Angelus" is one of my favorite paintings.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 7:59pm

Talkin' Broadway is Reeeeealy Negative:

"What becomes a literary legend least: writing something that’s forgotten for a century, or suffering a tarnished reputation when it’s finally revealed as something less than the genius for which he was known? Unfortunately for one of America’s few quintessential talents, both now apply to Mark Twain.

With the opening of Is He Dead?, it can at last be told that the gifts Twain displayed as an orator, humorist, novelist, and pundit did not extend to playwriting. Given Twain’s enduring career across so many media, one can forgive this blissfully unfunny foray into farce that was only unearthed and published for the first time less than a decade ago. That the play’s world-premiere production at the Lyceum has been hammered and wrenched to meet the simpler standards of 2007 instead of plied with the more holistic and delicate approach the 1898 play demands is harder to smile away..."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/IsHeDead.html

[James2]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 8:14pm

"Talkin' Broadway is really negative."

Not too surprising.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 8:21pm

Is this open-ended? I hope it lasts till the Tonys so I can see it in March.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 8:27pm

What time will the New York Times review for this one come out, I wonder...

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 8:28pm

I believe the show is open-ended and selling through March 30th.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 8:41pm

Infinite, the NYTIMES review usually comes out around 10:00.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 8:43pm

Thanks Bustopher ... but is that even when the show is a matinee as early as today's?

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 8:51pm

NJ Star Ledger is positive:

"A manful fellow with blunt good looks, Butz's Millet is comically awkward as he adapts to the Widow's flounced gowns and sausage curls. His character growing comfortable in corsets, Butz sails around vivaciously, mixing flirtatiousness with a devil-may-care masculinity. Designer Martin Pakledinaz's busty Victorian costumes amplify Butz's feminine charade even as the actor's farcical charms and expressive, spirited physicality set off eruptions of laughter.

Staged at a snappy pace by Michael Blakemore with a nod towards period stage manners, an 11-member troupe romps through a show that begins slowly and increasingly gathers momentum. Along with McMartin's wheedling old beau and Jennings' mustache-twirling villain, other droll standouts are darlings Patricia Conolly and Marylouise Burke as Millet's maidenly landladies and David Pittu in four sharply cut cameo roles.

Twain's admirers won't discover a memorable comedy here, but everybody who laughs their way through "Is He Dead?" is sure to remember Butz's hilarious performance."

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2007/12/butz_livens_twains_dead.html

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 9:19pm

High praise from the Daily News:

"Headlining the cast, Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz ("Dirty Rotten Scoundrels") proves that in pants or a dress, he's Broadway's finest, funniest and most appealing rascal.

Tossing his hair and wagging his finger, his Daisy blooms into a feisty girl with a modern attitude. It's not period-correct, but it's very amusing.

The 10-actor ensemble is impeccable. Memorable are Michael McGrath as Millet's scheming pal and Byron Jennings as a villain who falls for Daisy. David Pittu, who is a living cartoon, deft-ly lands each bit as a ridiculous art collector, butler and king. Patricia Conolly and the delicious Marylouise Burke sparkle as loopy landladies, while Jenn Gambatese, in the girlfriend role, can't understand why Daisy's kisses remind her so much of Francois'."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/columnists/dziemianowicz/index.html

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:14pm

Brantley is Positive:

"What might have been a wheeze turns out to be a giggle.

“Is He Dead?,” a previously unproduced play by the long-dead Mark Twain, has at last made its Broadway debut. And for something that’s basically been lying immobile for more than a century, gathering dust in archives, it has a remarkably sprightly step.

Most of the credit, I hasten to add, does not belong to the immortal author of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” whose many literary crowns did not include that of laurel-wreathed dramatist. Twain’s trenchant satirist’s eye is just barely discernible in this silly, formulaic farce, written in 1898, about a starving French painter forced to don women’s clothes.

But with the right doctors, even a long-buried dinosaur can be made to dance. “Is He Dead?,” which opened last night at the Lyceum Theater, benefits mightily from a top-grade team of resurrection artists. They include the director Michael Blakemore, the playwright David Ives (who adapted Twain’s script) and an infectiously happy cast, led by the wondrous Norbert Leo Butz, that serves a master class in making a meal out of a profiterole............

......... I don’t know about you, but as winter’s grayness creeps up on us, I’m in the mood for savvy stupidity. And Broadway isn’t doing much to satisfy that taste. (“Young Frankenstein”? Give me a break.)

“Is He Dead?” may be a scam, trying to pass off copper as gold. But by the time Mr. Butz raises his skirts and kicks up his heels for a final dance of the seven petticoats (or however many there are), there was indeed gold dust in my eyes."


http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/theater/reviews/10dead.html?ref=theater

Updated On: 12/9/07 at 10:14 PM

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:17pm

After seeing this, I really didn't expect Brantley to be SO positive...

Well, I'm glad this was such a good week for all of our new Broadway plays...

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:24pm

Nice dig to YOUNG FRANK, Ben.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:26pm

Good review. Brantley captures it.

[Glory]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:29pm

I want to see this show so bad and now that I see all the good reviews, i'm going to make a trip and make it my first Broadway straight show.

[Corine2]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:30pm

Great reviews!!!! Murray is always negative. He hated Spring Awakening. Enough said!!!!
Yay! My favorite play is getting fabulous reviews.
I PREDICT this show will win many awards this year!!!!


If you want to have a lot of laughs, you need to see this show!!!
It is hysterical. The funniest play I have ever seen!!!!

REUTERS: Watching him work his magic, especially in a hilarious bit of mime in which he pretends to have a series of fake body parts, is not so much amusing as it is practically life-affirming.
Updated On: 12/10/07 at 10:30 PM

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:33pm

Corine's Corner is an outright rave! It is funnier than Forbidden Broadway and Avenue Q?:

I saw "IS HE DEAD" tonight. If you can afford one show the entire season, I would tell you to buy tickets to this one. I have never laughed harder at a play. (Vampire Lesbians of Sodom was a close tie) but this show blew me away.

Fun. Laughs. GOODTIMES!!!!

What I loved about this play: It is a very funny and entertaining farce. If you enjoy over the top farce like David Lindsay Abaire's "Fuddy Meers" and Charles Busch's "Vampire Lesbians Of Sodom" you will also adore Mark Twain's "IS HE DEAD"

David Pittu, plays many roles and stands out in each of them from the Butler to the funny art buyers, he steals most of the show. Actually, every actor and actress in this show are brilliant in all the scenes and work together to make it a funny hit.

If you adore good acting and a funny farce you need to see "IS HE DEAD" be warned. You might die from laughing. Bring kleenex, I needed it for the tears running down my happy face!

More after December 9th.

Norbert Leo Butz should win many awards this season!

I AM STILL LAUGHING THINKING ABOUT THIS SHOW.

I sat in row B, Aisle center and found it to be the best seat in the theater. You really need to be close to see all of the actors facial expressions to truly appreciate this show. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I plan on seeing it again next week.

[bschneid76]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:34pm

I am glad to see it getting so many good reviews. I'd go see it again.

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:34pm

I might have to see this when I'm in NYC next weekend even though it's not part of my schedule. I had originally planned to but bought tickets to shows that weren't affected by the strike. Xanadu better be worth it!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/9/07 at 10:37pm

I agree Yankeefan. While Brantley is very positive about the production -- cast, adaptation, direction, design etc -- he's anything but complimentary about the script itself (which is exactly how I felt about it), stating

-- "“Is He Dead?” would likely generate only a few chuckles (and many a cry of “Oh, brother”) in the reading. Its plot suggests an ungainly younger cousin to “Charley’s Aunt,” Brandon Thomas’s popular cross-dressing comedy from 1892."

-- "I’ll admit I wasn’t all that happy for the play’s first 10 minutes or so, despite the obvious polish of the cast and the physical production"

-- "I’m not going to quote much from the play, since most of its jokes wither and die when removed from the rarefied air of the Lyceum."


Brantley makes it clear that this production thrives and triumphs DESPITE the many shortcomings of the script, so thank heavens for the high level of expertise of all those involved.

Updated On: 12/9/07 at 10:37 PM