LIAISONS Reviews

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 8:00pm

Rave from the AP:

"Maliciousness is in full flower at Broadway's American Airlines Theatre, where the Roundabout Theatre Company's stylish revival of Christopher Hampton's delightfully decadent "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" is on display.

Hampton's take-no-prisoners battle of the sexes — based on the novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos — has been given an enormously entertaining production by Rufus Norris. The director has chosen well in casting the generals who command each side in this war that never ends. And although they may be opposing forces, these leaders of 18th-century French aristocracy are often in cahoots in their plotting of destruction for destruction's sake, the sheer joy of ruination. Power trumps everything.

On one side, we have Le Vicomte de Valmont, portrayed with swaggering narcissism by Ben Daniels. As another character in the play says of Valmont, he "never opens his mouth without first calculating what damage he can do," and the serpentine Daniels makes the man's determination to do evil fascinating to watch.

Valmont is matched by La Marquise de Merteuil, played by the excellent Laura Linney with a pursed-lip disdain that creeps out from behind an icy politeness. Manners are important to these folks; morals are not."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/01/arts/Theater-Liaisons-Dangereuses.php

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 8:05pm

Great review

would love to see this

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 8:23pm

I am dying to see this...I love, love, LOVE Laura Linney. Keep the positive reviews coming!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 8:31pm

Nice to read that review. Can't wait to see Mamie Gummer and Laura Linney, of course, in this play.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 8:37pm

I hear there is nudity.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 8:39pm

I want DESPERATELY to see this. Is it planned as a limited or open end run?

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 9:12pm

It's Roundabout so it's a limited run.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 9:51pm

In the past, their tendency has been that if a show opens to stellar reviews (a rare occurence), they will extend it as much as a month. Don't count on it, pending availability of stars, but it's happened. Manhattan Theatre Club, a much more worthy company, almost always extends another two weeks or so, pending on demand.

[Maurice]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 9:52pm

Broadway.com's Word of Mouth review is up.
Word of Mouth

[Theaterles]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 10:06pm

Talkin' Broadway is up.

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/
Updated On: 5/1/08 at 10:06 PM

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 10:07pm

Something is wrong with this picture...

Talkin' Broadway is a Rave:

Nearly everyone has been ripped apart by love, but how often does the experience leave you slavering in anticipation of the responsible vulture's next flesh-tearing act? The uniquely human knack for being hurt and yet begging for more is the background music that warbles throughout Christopher Hampton's play Les Liaisons Dangereuses, shining the light of understanding (if not acceptability) on the two devils dueling away at its center.

The demonic duo of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont not only make the second circle of hell a prime vacation spot - they make the American Airlines this spring's must-visit theater. As given statuesque body and searing voice by Laura Linney and Ben Daniels, they also emit enough sparks to send most city fire marshals running for their lives...

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

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 10:15pm

Word of Mouth is a Rave:

http://www.broadway.com/gen/general.aspx?ci=563954

Watching this, I was reminded of Buddy's line from CITY OF ANGELS: "There won't be a dry seat in the house!"

[A Grey Spring]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 10:20pm

NY Times is up:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/theater/reviews/02liai.html?ref=theater

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 10:20pm

The New York Times (with Brantley reviewing) is Mixed-to-Negative (loved Daniels, but not much else):

Mr. Daniels provides both the silliest and most serious rendering I’ve seen of Valmont, who has been memorably played onstage by Alan Rickman (in the Royal Shakespeare Company production that came to Broadway in 1987) and on screen by John Malkovich (in Stephen Frears’s “Dangerous Liaisons”) and Colin Firth (in Milos Forman’s “Valmont”). His warm, fluid performance reflects what would appear to be Mr. Norris’s intention: to turn up the temperature in a work of famously icy cynicism. Unfortunately no one else in this revival approaches Mr. Daniels’s level of complexity, including Ms. Linney, a wonderful actress who has been shoehorned into a part out of her natural range and is perceptibly pinched.

As a consequence this portrait of a pair of amoral aristocrats who play the game of love as if it were a game of chess often registers with the bouncy bawdiness of a Restoration comedy (right down to a flatulence gag). When the plot turns truly nasty, it’s hard to feel the requisite shivers, and the show often wears the tight smirk of a protracted dirty joke in fancy dress...

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/theater/reviews/02liai.html?ref=theater

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 10:23pm

So far, Brantley's review is the only one I agree with. He is correct in saying that Linney is miscast, Daniels is brilliant, and the production is uneven.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 10:29pm

I agree. Brantley nailed it. Daniels walks away with the show, and the production has moments of brilliance, but also moments of boredom.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 10:53pm

And moments of male members....

[Ryan4]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 10:54pm

Brantley is usually right, but I think he sort of missed it here - Linney, offering a different take on the role than usual, was far more interesting for me than Daniels pretty standard-issue scene-stealing; not all that remarkable an accomplishment given he's got the flashiest role in the show.

I also thought Norris's inventive staging was fantastic - it really highlighted the characters' isolation and loneliness in spite of all the sex.

[Eos]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 11:18pm

I got to see this before I headed back home and really liked it. I went in open-minded but excited to see the cast in this story. To me, Ben Daniels’s performance was fun to watch, but Laura Linney's to me was more interesting.
Loved it overall though. Liked the set and of course, beautiful costumes.

From Brantley: "And more than any I’ve seen, this “Liaisons” hints that the Marquise might prefer her own sex."

Loved that, too.

[Testing1232]

Posted: 5/1/08 at 11:35pm

Totally agree with the Times review... Really surprised at the raves !!!

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 5/2/08 at 12:00am

Variety is Mixed-to-Positive:

It's a testament to the wit, ingenuity and economy of Christopher Hampton's distillation of Choderlos de Laclos' epistolary 1782 novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" that this delicious tournament of sex and power never gets old -- regardless of the indelible memory of the original Royal Shakespeare Company production, the toothsome Stephen Frears film or any of its subsequent adaptations, derivations or imitations. In Roundabout's stylish Broadway revival, Hampton's pungent brew of aristocratic mores, salacious scandal, high culture and low innuendo proves resilient -- despite some heavy-handed directorial choices and one crucial piece of miscasting.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117936995.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[pc1145N2]

Posted: 5/2/08 at 1:02am

I agree with Brantley as well. He nailed the review.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/2/08 at 1:58am

What's the inventive staging? And any pics of the set yet?