Journey's End Reviews

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 6:42pm

Talkin Broadway is a Rave:

"Devastation takes many forms, some tangible but most otherwise, in the revival of Journey's End that just opened at the Belasco, although nothing that's destroyed compares to what's created. In David Grindley's excellent production of R.C. Sherriff's 1929 play, the numerous explosions grimly heralding the turning of the tide of World War I are mere firecrackers. It's the cataclysmic blasts of heart-rending humanity onstage that unveil in the ugliness of war something of sublime beauty.

However, rarely is something this beautiful this difficult to watch. Though the setting is a British dugout in the trenches near St. Quentin, France, Journey's End really takes place at the intersection of a dozen personal hells. Under Grindley's direction, this production makes you feel each and every one as though your own future - to say nothing of your life - hangs in the balance. That this bloody chronicle of the March, 1918, days preceding Operation Michael, the first part of the German army's Spring Offensive, never depresses but consistently uplifts and inspires is itself a kind of miracle."


http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/JourneysEnd2007.html

Updated On: 2/22/07 at 06:42 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 6:44pm

The AP is a Rave

"Duty. Honor. Responsibility. Words that get bandied about a lot these days, particularly regarding the war in Iraq.

They were a pretty big deal, too, nearly 80 years ago when "Journey's End," R.C. Sherriff's drama of life in the trenches of World War I, first opened in London. So it's not surprising that the play remains an affecting evening of theater for today's audiences, a potent reminder of the human cost of conflict.

Director David Grindley's exceptional production, which opened Thursday at Broadway's Belasco Theatre, is as straightforward as the play. No gimmicks, unless you count the stereophonic rumblings of the guns and the bursts of mortar fire that seem to rattle the ancient Belasco to its venerable foundation.

________________________________________________________________

"Journey's End" has always had a special resonance for British audiences, and Grindley recently directed a London revival that had a lengthy run. Yet the play has universal appeal. The staggering sense of loss depicted by "Journey's End" in this sterling revival will continue to haunt theatergoers for a long, long time."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/22/entertainment/e142505S49.DTL

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 6:48pm

AmNY gives it Two-and-a-half stars:

"If there were a Tony Award for best sound design, it would easily go to "Journey's End" for its jolting World War I bomb effects. The show would also win for best lack of lighting, for its realistic portrayal of wartime conditions. And if there were a prize for best production of an antique war play that is impressive but still dull and over sentimental, it would merit that, too."

_______________________________________________________________

By today's standards, "Journey's End" feels slow, dramaturgically awkward and bizarrely sentimental. Set in the trenches of Saint-Quentin, France, in 1918, "Journey's End" marked one of the first attempts to take audiences into the realism of war in the 20th century, as seen through British troops stationed next to the German border."

http://www.amny.com/entertainment/stage/am-journeysend0222,0,7849743.story?coll=am-theater-headlines

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 7:15pm

I'm not expecting anything but raves.

Who did Sam Barnett play in London? Why didn't he transfer to NY? Wasn't he supposed to? Updated On: 2/22/07 at 07:15 PM

[AC126748]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 10:23pm

Brantley raves:

"The minutes contract and dilate, like wary eyes in shifting light, amid the time-bending silence that pervades the splendid revival of R. C. Sherriff’s “Journey’s End,” which opened last night at the Belasco Theater. Set in the British trenches near the front line in St. Quentin, France, during World War I, David Grindley’s acutely staged and acted production of this landmark drama from 1928 is filled with instances of soldiers checking their watches, asking the time, counting off days and hours and minutes.


No clock or chart, though, can begin to measure time as these men experience it. It is the period before a battle that may or may not happen but will probably be their death if it does. They can stuff the emptiness of waiting with chatting or drinking or pipe dreaming. But whether they speed it up or slow it down, time is definitely not on their side.

Though it hasn’t been seen on Broadway in more than six decades, “Journey’s End” turns out to be no quaint curiosity from an age of innocence, dusted off and spruced up for our ironic inspection. It is instead that theatrical rarity, an uncompromising, cleareyed play about war — and not war as it echoes on the home front or in chambers of government, but war as a daily phenomenon for those who fight it."

____________________
"Mr. Sands’s face is so open that it hurts. And Mr. Gaines, best known as a leading man (“Contact,” “She Loves Me”), turns in a lovely character performance that hints at the vulnerability beneath the bluff dignity.

Stanhope, the flashiest role, was first portrayed by a young Laurence Olivier. Mr. Dancy (who played Essex to Helen Mirren’s Elizabeth I on television) has the cheekbones and brooding gaze of Olivier in his matinee idol era. But he doesn’t overuse them, emphasizing instead just how much of a boy Stanhope is, despite the assumed official swagger."
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/theater/reviews/23jour.html?pagewanted=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1172200897-7ENhFjra1z0RxfbsND//Bw

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 10:24pm

Good for them!

Going in March, as long as they keep on doing rush.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 10:29pm

Theatremania is a Rave:

"The British are often applauded for keeping a stiff upper lip through the worst of times. There are moments, however, when that lip can begin to tremble. R.C. Sherriff's 1929 play Journey's End is one of those extended instances. Director David Grindley triumphantly revived the work in London three years ago and has now transferred that production to Broadway with an all-new cast headed by Hugh Dancy, Boyd Gaines, and Jefferson Mays. The result is as explosive as Gregory Clarke's ultimately ear-splitting and terrifying sound design."
http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/10131

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 10:32pm

Reuters is a Rave:

"Arriving on Broadway years after its triumphant West End production, this revival of the little-seen (at least in America) "Journey's End" demonstrates that this 1929 World War I play by R.C. Sherriff, rather than being a museum piece, has lost none of its power or immediacy.

This is thanks in large part to director David Grindley's magnificent staging, featuring a sterling ensemble cast that includes Tony winners Boyd Gaines and Jefferson Mays as well as rising young British actor Hugh Dancy ("Elizabeth I") in the role originated by a very young Laurence Olivier.

________________________________________________________________

Everything about this deeply stirring production, including the final visual tableaux and even the somber curtain call, has been rendered with a sensitivity and craftsmanship that represents theater at its finest."

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=stageNews&storyID=2007-02-23T024116Z_01_N22194585_RTRIDST_0_STAGE-STAGE-JOURNEY-DC.XML

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 10:32pm

I just got back from opening night. Mind-blowing show. The only downfall was that 5 loud cell phones went off throughout the performance. I hope many people see this show. Jefferson Mays was fantastic, as was the entire ensemble.

[AC126748]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 10:35pm

5 cell phones on Opening Night...Jesus Christ.

[jaystarr]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 10:36pm

Great news for Journey's End . We saw it last Sunday and it was excellent ! Im happy for Journey's End

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:04pm

Variety is Mostly Positive:

"The London success of David Grindley’s 2004 revival of “Journey’s End,” R.C. Sherriff’s 1929 play set in the British trenches during WWI, illustrated the slow-burning drama’s capacity to resonate with audiences 75 years on. The politics, technology, media management and basic tools of war may have changed, but the drama’s insights into the psychological toll of battle and the courage and endurance of its soldiers seem more trenchant than ever in the emotionally wrenching production’s recast Broadway transfer.

The play should be a dusty relic given its single setting and archetypal characters; its focus not on ordinary soldiers but on privileged, mainly middle-class officers; and its unhurried setup and almost plotless action. And given the extent to which Sherriff allows the numbing monotony of trench life to permeate the dramatic fabric, it should -- and at times does -- drift toward tedium.

But Grindley’s exacting staging never shrinks from these potential stumbling blocks. He methodically follows the playwright’s careful blueprint, secure in the knowledge that when the drama’s inactivity detonates into emotional rawness, the effect will be devastating.

The production demands patience and alertness from its audience. Given the shadowy beauty of Jason Taylor’s dim lighting and the claustrophobic confines of Jonathan Fensom’s meticulously realistic, low-ceilinged dugout set, it may also require a certain amount of squinting from the mezzanine. But rarely does a play that initially seems so phlegmatic acquire such visceral power as it progresses -- crescendoing in a stunning final tableau."




http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117932884.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

Updated On: 2/22/07 at 11:04 PM

[alexg456]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:23pm

I also went to the opening night. Jane Krakowsky and Claire Danes among celebrities in the audience.

Liked the show, but was disappointed that Jefferson May's role was very very small. His role didn't have a single monologue or a meaningful dialogue.

Also, DO NOT buy balcony tickets for this show. There is an annoying rail that goes around to prevent people from falling over into orchestra. This rail gets in a way of almost any balcony row. I was sitting in 2nd row at first -- extremely annoying. One has to constantly look above and below the rail depending on the action on stage. At intermission, I checked out the view from 3rd, 4th and 5th row. The rail was still in the view. The 1st row is OK as one sees through the opening between the rail and wall. That's where I sat after the intermission. There were quite a few empty balcony seats.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:30pm

Newsday is Positive:

"It is possible not to relish the prospect of spending three dark days - that's 2 1/2 theater hours - in the officer dugout of a British trench in 1918. Even if Tony Blair had not announced plans to reduce the British presence in Iraq this week, however, it would be hard to remember a Broadway drama with more persuasive war-is-hell immediacy than "Journey's End."

R.C. Sherriff wrote this humane closeup of World War I in 1928, just a year after Erich Maria Remarque wrote "All Quiet on the Western Front" from his harrowing memories of the German trenches. Seventy-eight years after the Broadway premiere, Sherriff's own lesser-known slice of aching battlefield life turns out to be no less exquisitely humane.

David Grindley's celebrated revival, which ran almost two years in London, has been recast for Broadway with a virtuosic all-male company that, for all its credentials, understands the power of a real ensemble."
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etledew5104155feb23,0,1230414.story?coll=ny-theater-headlines

[jewelchk]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:48pm

Foster, I was there too, and the cell phones were RIDICULOUS. Being vauge so as not to spoil anything, but there was that one phone that went off at one of the pivotal ending moments, and it just kept ringing and ringing and ringing-- could the person at least TRY to stop it? Those people who pretend it isn't them and just let it keep going, YEESH! That's worse than letting it ring in the first place. And we know it's you! And yes, that goes for you too, man-at-Chorus-Line-who-was-sitting-right-next-to-me-earlier-this-month-and-let-his-phone-ring-ten-times.

<*/end threadjack, resume reviews>

Updated On: 2/22/07 at 11:48 PM

[AC126748]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:53pm

I also went to the opening night. Jane Krakowsky and Claire Danes among celebrities in the audience.


I guess that confirms that Danes and Hugh Dancy are an item.

[Horton]

Posted: 2/22/07 at 11:56pm

I was there tonight, my first opening night ever. I was thrilled, Crying my eyes out at the end, the play was so powerful, and this is definately the performance of Boyd Gains' career. Jane Krakowsky was the only person there i recognized of fame outside bww.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 12:37am

I love me some Jane Krakowski (with an "i" not a "y" ), I suppose she was there to support her Company co-star Boyd Gaines.
I hope the reviews improve the show's attendance, it played in the 50s% last week.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 12:45am

NY Sun is Rave:

"Well, I certainly didn't see this coming.

From out of nowhere, a British director named David Grindley has exhumed R.C. Sherriff's 1929 World War I drama "Journey's End" and turned it into a profoundly moving evocation of life during wartime, a poignant tribute to those who fight and wait and talk and wait and comfort and wait and wait and die.

As is so often the case, the soldiers' time in the British trenches somewhere near St.-Quentin, France, consists of about 10% terror and 90% tedium. "We are, generally, just waiting for something," the patient, diplomatic Lieutenant Osborne (a marvelous Boyd Gaines) explains to Raleigh (Stark Sands), a wideeyed second lieutenant who has joined the company only minutes earlier. "When anything happens, it happens quickly. Then we just start waiting again." It is this juxtaposition that Mr. Grindley conveys so well, presenting the restorative stretches of boredom alongside rare flashes of violence with equal conviction. (He met with similar success with a London revival of the play in 2004.) He begins each scene with a barrage of thunderous sound effects before shifting into the officers' dingy, crowded dugout, which is located on the supply line. Just in front of it sits the front line, which in turn is about 70 yards from the German trenches. "About the breadth of a Rugger field," explains the always helpful Osborne.

The play's first image is of an officer vainly trying to dry out his socks over a candle, and his dank, oppressive surroundings are as much of a character in "Journey's End" as the mud-caked officers who wearily inhabit them. Mr. Grindley leaves the upper twothirds of the Belasco Theatre stage unused until a devastating coup de theatre at the play's conclusion. Until then, Jonathan Fensom's claustrophobic set design, with its groaning timbers and muddy floor, and Jason Taylor's sepulchral lighting create an indelibly comfortless image. It's hard to shake the idea that these noble men are sitting prematurely in their own graves."


http://www.nysun.com/article/49184

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 1:02am

WOW, a Brantley review I could actually read and agree with.
I just wish he would have wrote more about the acting which is the best I have seen in a long time.
Boyd Gaines is nothing less than amazing, and reminds me what a career in New York theatre he has had.
If not for his vocal problems at the begining of COMPANY he was the definitive Bobby.
And every other performance he has given was top notch.
I wanna see him win, yet another TONY.
Jefferson Mays is also incredible in his smaller yet entirely pivotal role.
Hugh Dancy makes a fine Broadway debut.
And all the other characters are spot on.
I'm glad they got the raves the deserve.
And this is truly an artistic reminder of the futility of War and waste of our youth and Men that continues today.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 2:24am

Washington Post is a Rave:

"The gripping effect of "Journey's End" is not merely akin to watching an old war movie. At times, it's like being in one.

That's how realistically the terrifying sounds of the front-line bombardments are re-created in the exceptional revival of R.C. Sherriff's World War I drama that opened last night at the Belasco Theatre. Set in a dank, candlelit officers' dugout in a British trench line in France, the play is a jarring slice of life on the precipice of violent death."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201973.html

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 2:34am

The Ligthing was very realistic but I wanted to see the faces more.
The sound was realistic and sacrey.

[etoile]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 3:16am

When I saw the show I was sixth row center and could not have asked for anything better. I felt as if I was in the trench also.

So glad to see this production has received such positive recognition. There was such a communal response at curtain call. After the curtain rose and the cast filed off stage not a sound was heard, not a word spoken. I believe that many were like me, in need of some time to recompose. I couldn't wait to get out of the theatre, couldn't wait to wipe the tears...such a visceral response.

One satisfying and powerful play.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 10:36am

Finally. A play that I enjoyed and the critics raved about! Congrats to the cast and crew on such rave reviews...well deserved!

[Calvin]

Posted: 2/23/07 at 11:23am

etoile, I had the same experience -- I heard nothing but very light chatter, mostly nervous laughter, from my fellow audience members as I walked out of the theatre. I usually turn on my iPod the second I hit the street, but I needed the silence for most of my trip home that night.

I truly hope these reviews get people out to see this show.