JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN Previews- Page 3

[theatergoer3]

Posted: 4/6/25 at 6:07pm

The last beat of this is perfect for the character work and plot developments that lead to it. It’s exactly how I’d end it. 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 4/6/25 at 6:38pm

I really enjoyed the ensemble in this well-written feminist allegory. Fina Strazza was especially good and the direction and pace was well above par. I absolutely loved the ending and left with a big smile on my face.

[broadway86]

Posted: 4/12/25 at 10:17am

Saw this on Saturday and just loved it. Really powerful by the end, and in unexpected ways.

Sadie Sink was wonderful, but Amalia Yoo and Fina Strazza really surprised me. Gabriel Ebert expertly nailed all the juxtaposing facets of Mr. Smith.

Highly recommended.

[Owen22]

Posted: 4/12/25 at 10:49am

That was a really good play!!  Obviously reminded me of The Wolves, another play I adore, except the Wolves were jocks and these girls are budding intellectuals.  But both playwrights have an ear for how teenage girls talk and that talk is wonderful and insightful and communicated by a bunch of tremendous young actresses. Four stars!!

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 4/12/25 at 11:14am

I thought this was great. A lot of plays recently have felt like preaching to the choir- a woke play for a woke audience but in this case it didn’t bother me too much. It’s precise, very funny, and entertaining. It started to feel a bit long to me around the gas station scene on the lip of the stage. But then the final performance took place and I found myself in tears along with the women surrounding me.

 

The audience wasn’t super well behaved.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/12/25 at 12:06pm

Owen22 said: "That was a really good play!! Obviously reminded me of The Wolves, another play I adore, except the Wolves were jocks and these girls are budding intellectuals. But both playwrights have an ear for how teenage girls talk and that talk is wonderful and insightful and communicated by a bunch of tremendous young actresses. Four stars!!"

I read the script the other day and the play that it reminded me of was Kingdom City by Sheri Wilner. Both are plays set in contemporary conservative small towns that The Crucible to parallel buried secrets and sexual impropriety. I enjoyed reading Kingdom City quite a but, but I think I liked John Proctor is the Villain even more. It felt more true to life in terms of how teenagers talk and behave. Kingdom City also goes much darker and is more overtly provocative and explicit in terms of the buried secrets, which is dramatically compelling but less palatable. Kingdom City also is more overtly about the control religion has over small towns and how it is used to cover up misconduct. John Proctor is the Villain, while certainly confronting the same explosive topics, feels more organic in how the topics are integrated into the stories and characters while also being less explicit.

Kingdom City isn't produced often, probably because of how explicit and provocative it gets, but I can see John Proctor is the Villain being more popular. I could see that one being produced in my area, which is exactly the sort of rural conservative place in which both plays are set.

[MaxineElliott]

Posted: 4/12/25 at 4:09pm

Any possibility this extends or becomes an open ended run? Even if Sink is not available they find a “name” actress around that age to take her place. It’s rare a play comes along that really engages with young people and is well reviewed critically. 
 

..

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 12:41pm

Anyone see this recently? I’m assuming it’s frozen since it opens this week. Still running closer to 2 hours?

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 12:59pm

DramaTeach said: "Anyone see this recently? I’m assuming it’s frozen since it opens this week. Still running closer to 2 hours?"


I saw it a few days ago. Show was at 7:30, curtain call was at 9:24.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 4:40pm

Saw this and honestly not sure why it’s gotten so much praise on here. It was good but predictable. I definitely laughed and thought the girls did a great job. Someone said this didn’t feel preachy, but I found it to be heavy-handed. Again, I did enjoy it, but I wouldn’t give it a rave.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 4:47pm

I saw the matinee today and I suppose I was lucky because the audience was great. I expected folks to rush the stage when Sadie appeared but she got a very polite entrance applause/reaction. 

I'm going to need to think on this play a bit because while I think every actor on that stage was marvelous, I'm not too sure the script was. I didn't "dislike" the play but it felt like for a play that wanted an audience to make thier own conclusions about something it sure did want to force your hand into feeling a certain way. Someone told me they loved how the play asked a lot of questions and I suppose it did but then I felt it kind of let the audience down by answering them - if that makes sense. 

 

 

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I really wish that scene with the teacher telling Gabe that she knew the women he knew in college wasn't there - it removed any and all doubts and questions I felt the playwright wanted us to leave, pondering. At least, that's just my initial thought, an hour after the show ended.

 

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 4:53pm

What you described is certainly how I experienced the script seeing the show in DC.

[Melissa25]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 8:08pm

Jordan Catalano: I saw the matinee today and I suppose I was lucky because the audience was great. I expected folks to rush the stage when Sadie appeared but she got a very polite entrance applause/reaction. 

I'm going to need to think on this play a bit because while I think every actor on that stage was marvelous, I'm not too sure the script was. I didn't "dislike" the play but it felt like for a play that wanted an audience to make thier own conclusions about something it sure did want to force your hand into feeling a certain way. Someone told me they loved how the play asked a lot of questions and I suppose it did but then I felt it kind of let the audience down by answering them - if that makes sense. 

 

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I really wish that scene with the teacher telling Gabe that she knew the women he knew in college wasn't there - it removed any and all doubts and questions I felt the playwright wanted us to leave, pondering. At least, that's just my initial thought, an hour after the show ended.

I don't think Kimberly Belflower wanted us to have any doubts whatsoever about Mr. Smith. Miss Gallagher was also won over by his charm. Remember this is her first year in the job and she is closer in age to the students. (Her age is listed as 24, his is late 30's.  She also explains to Smith that she had a crush on him in when she was in middle school. She did not want to believe the stories from the other women about him but she obviously does now and this is why I think it is important that it was included. He is a groomer. I frankly could not believe that he was still employed at the school.

 

[Skip23]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 8:19pm

I didn't buy the ending.

 

 

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I mean...they let the girl back in the classroom (AND the teacher!!!) after what's happened between the two?  HUH?  

 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 8:25pm

Yeah that was weird to me, too. 

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 8:44pm

Skip23 said: "I didn't buy the ending.
 

 

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I mean...they let the girl back in the classroom (AND the teacher!!!) after what's happened between the two? HUH?

"

Same. I don’t care how small this “one stoplight” town is. Never happen.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 8:46pm

Skip23 said: "I didn't buy the ending.
 

 

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I mean...they let the girl back in the classroom (AND the teacher!!!) after what's happened between the two? HUH?

Maybe its different from what I read in the script, but from what I understand 

 

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She was being kept away from him otherwise, but let back in the classroom specifically (and with the school counselor supervising) to give her presentation so her partner wouldn't suffer a loss in grade by missing it as a result of the actions of her teacher

 

Updated On: 4/13/25 at 08:46 PM

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 8:46pm

Skip23 said: "I didn't buy the ending.
 

 

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I mean...they let the girl back in the classroom (AND the teacher!!!) after what's happened between the two? HUH?

"

I also found that strange but I think this was meant to be a small town where standing in the town means a lot (and it seems obvious that the teacher is very well-respected.  What I was more surprised about was that

 

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Shelby's parents obviously believe SOMETHING happened to her to allow her to go to Atlanta for 3 months to recover, so they must have believed her to some extent.  Why allow her to return to school under the same teacher though?  When she talks about how alternative plans are made for her to finish out English class, it's clear that there's another teacher that would be suitable so why not request a change of class? They wouldn't even have to mention how she was assaulted if they didn't want to, just anything about how they didn't feel that the class was suitable for her anymore or wanting a different environment etc would've probably been enough.

While I enjoyed the play a lot, I thought it did a bit of a bait and switch with the girl's dad who got in trouble.  At the beginning it seemed that if there were events paralleling The Crucible it would clearly be the teacher, but when the other girl's father got in trouble it seemed that it was probably him who had tried to assault Shelby, up until Shelby speaks up.  And part of the reason that assumption held up for me was that Shelby went straight back to a classroom with him, so it all feels a little like they wanted to pull one over the audience.

To me the play is less about reexamining The Crucible in a modern context as the title would suggest, but the messiness of growing up and realizing you may have a flawed perspective, of wanting to do the right thing but feeling like it's wrong and vice versa, and how you feel differently about things when they become personal issues that happen close to you.  And while it did offer some slightly new perspective on The Crucible (which is a play I hadn't really thought about since I read it in high school, so perhaps the perspective isn't all that new), I do think they also picked and chose specific parts that supported their argument and conveniently left out portions that didn't.  And perhaps that isn't the point of the play, but that also goes back to my point of it being more a story about coming of age and everything.

I really did enjoy this, but I'm not sure it's the best play shoo-in that people seem to be considering it to be.  I'd put it on the bubble and could really see it going either way.

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 10:40pm

TotallyEffed said: "I thought this was great. A lot of plays recently have felt like preaching to the choir- a woke play for a woke audience but in this case it didn’t bother me too much. It’s precise, very funny, and entertaining. It started to feel a bit long to me around the gas station scene on the lip of the stage. But then the final performance took place and I found myself in tears along with the women surrounding me.



The audience wasn’t super well behaved."

This almost across the board, but need to emphasize: there is almost no justification for a two hour intermission-less play, and this play is no exception. The playwright could easily have cut 20 minutes or more and the audience would miss nothing. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 11:29pm

Bring back intermissions!!!

[getatme]

Posted: 4/13/25 at 11:32pm

Saw the final preview this afternoon after reading the play last year and thought it was pretty phenomenal across the board. Perhaps it's a little long, but it never felt long to me, I was engrossed beginning to end and it was really wonderful to see an audience that was both primarily younger and really engaged the whole time.

First and foremost, it was really refreshing to see a play that takes teenagers -- especially teenage girls -- seriously. These are intelligent, complicated, thoughtful young women who are shown at their best and their worst and it was nice to see a playwright embrace the fact that teenagers are real people with thoughts and feelings and experiences of value.

Even having read the play, there were major moments I had forgotten and I really was on the edge of my seat the whole time. That final scene just kind of knocked the wind right out of me and it must be such a cathartic experience for these actors every performance.

Performances across the board I thought were fantastic and more than anything, I was so impressed with the chemistry they all had. This really did feel like a group of people who had known each other for years, or were just coming together in the case of Morgan Scott's Nell. Fina Strazza and Amalia Yoo really stood out to me, and it was a treat to see Sadie Sink back on Broadway so many years after being blown away by her in The Audience. Also loved Molly Griggs in a role that could have felt overly earnest, and a shoutout to the casting team for choosing such a likable and charming guy like Gabriel Ebert for the teacher. But truly, not a weak link amongst the whole cast.

The production moves at a brisk pace, and there are some very stylish transitions from Taymor that I thought cleverly emphasized moments or illuminated feelings.

I'm very eager to make a return trip to see how this cast all continues to settle in and grow into these roles, they've already mined so much from it and I'm sure that will only continue as the run progresses.

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 4/14/25 at 8:38am

Jordan Catalano said: "I saw the matinee today and I suppose I was lucky because the audience was great. I expected folks to rush the stage when Sadie appeared but she got a very polite entrance applause/reaction.

I'm going to need to think on this play a bit because while I think every actor on that stage was marvelous, I'm not too sure the script was. I didn't "dislike" the play but it felt like for a play that wanted an audience to make thier own conclusions about something it sure did want to force your hand into feeling a certain way. Someone told me they loved how the play asked a lot of questions and I suppose it did but then I felt it kind of let the audience down by answering them - if that makes sense.
 

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

I really wish that scene with the teacher telling Gabe that she knew the women he knew in college wasn't there - it removed any and all doubts and questions I felt the playwright wanted us to leave, pondering. At least, that's just my initial thought, an hour after the show ended.

"

Yeah, I’m not sure this is a play that’s supposed to be asking a questions so much as asking the audience to ask a question based on the show’s thesis. It’s trying to prove point and it’s right in the title: John Proctor is the Villain.

 

The point of the play is the history books and canonization of what is “great” art has always been determined by the male perspective: many of the men that are held up as “great” men are actually not great men, but problematic or downright harmful for women & it’s been so prevalent for so long that we’ve all internalized it. It’s taking this big ideas and showing how it personally affects young women. 
 

It very strongly comes down on one side of the argument—I think the audience is supposed to ask themselves if they buy the overall argument and if they, too, have bought into the metaphorical John Proctor=Good, Abigail=Bad narrative in their own lives. 

[Melissa25]

Posted: 4/14/25 at 9:04am

 

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The timing of this play is so perfect because I have been feeling over the past few weeks like I need to just dance maniacally in the woods too. 

 

[MayAudraBlessYou2]

Posted: 4/14/25 at 11:01am

To those who are saying they don't buy the ending because the teacher is allowed to remain at the school after what happened, and Sadie Sink's character is back in the same room as him, even if only for one class: 

I went to a well respected arts college in a major city, in a renowned BFA program that produces tons of professional stage and screen actors that you've prob seen. In my senior year, a guest artist working on the big main stage musical assaulted me. I reported it to the performing arts department. They kept me separate from him for the rest of the process, but absolutely NOTHING was done to reprimand him or remove him from the production. I get the disbelief that the teacher in John Proctor would still be there. But if my experience in a major liberal arts college in a liberal city is any indication, you can bet that a man of stature in a tiny "one stop light town" kept his job. I was completely moved by this play. Bellflower's script forces the audience to look at some very uncomfortable truths. That final dance was like an exorcism, my heart leapt out of my chest and it captured something that words simply can't describe.

[surferbro24]

Posted: 4/14/25 at 11:17am

I went again on Saturday, and the performances have only deepened. Just under two hours, but it flew by—it honestly felt like 30 minutes. I do kind of miss intermissions, but including one here would be a disservice. The pacing is relentless in the best way, and that ending wouldn’t land nearly as hard if it were broken up.

What really struck me this time was how completely locked-in the audience was. Obviously it varies by performance, but this was the first intermissionless play I’ve seen where there wasn’t even the rustle of a Playbill or someone ducking out for a bathroom break in the last 20 minutes. Miraculously, not a single phone rang. Total silence, total engagement.

I feel like a total shill for sounding this enthusiastic, but I was genuinely blown away...again.

Updated On: 4/14/25 at 11:17 AM