LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD Reviews- Page 2

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 12/12/25 at 12:36pm

Huss417 said: "MemorableUserName said: "Adding here since the show isn't in previews. (The fact that no one's had anything to say about it in a month and a half likely indicates why it's closing.)

LITTLE BEAR RIDGE ROAD Will Close Early on Broadway

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/LITTLE-BEAR-RIDGE-ROAD-Will-Close-Early-on-Broadway-20251212"

Being discussed in the previews thread if interested.

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/thread/LITTLE-BEAR-RIDGE-ROAD-Previews"

Which is why I said "Adding here since the show isn't in previews."

And considering how typically nasty that discussion got almost from the start a different, and accurate, thread may be welcome for some. To each their own.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 12/12/25 at 1:49pm

Helen Shaw's New Yorker review was never posted. She is/was right as usual.

Laurie Metcalf’s Stunning Return to Broadway in “Little Bear Ridge Road”

The playwright Samuel D. Hunter tailors a family drama to the actress’s specific gifts

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/10/little-bear-ridge-road-theatre-review-the-bride-and-the-goodnight-cinderella

 

"The play operates best as a fine-grained character study, but its thinnest element is Ethan’s relationship with James, an oddly two-dimensional figure whose devotion becomes bizarre in the face of Ethan’s petulance and insults. I wondered if James’s saintliness represents another aspect of our lost COVID years, when intense relationships blossomed out of nothing. Hunter is interested in what flawed people can offer one another, the difference between saving and helping. "

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/13/25 at 10:48am

The eloquent Shaw review - highlighting the distinct Americana in Hunter's story - is, in the best sense, triggering. The play is closing in no small part because it's a non-event offering in an "event" forward ecosystem. Ticket pricing as a liability remains a controversial topic, because we're told that even short runs require a preponderance of near premium seats to ensure return on the dollar. But here's where we hit a sociological wall: A show like Hunter's - about the struggling class of a red state, surviving COVID by the skin of their teeth, facing a bleak post-pandemic society wherein needed connections between isolated people are strained, tenuous - is a populist tale.

It's a small canvas illustration of small(er) lives - not dramatizing Oedipus or Norma Desmond - perfectly scaled. The very people who would see themselves and their communities in the play's world-building are shut out from the outset. The next argument goes like this, "Yeah, but after Broadway comes publication, and community theaters can do it everywhere." So this turns the premiere in New York into the Cannes Film Festival for new plays, creating a kind of trickle-down art form wherein the people who might most appreciate depicted lives and experiences won't have access to them until it's no longer in the hands of top tier professionals.

Updated On: 12/13/25 at 10:48 AM

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 12/13/25 at 11:43am

Easy to imagine this getting a fair number of regional productions in the years ahead.  Glad I caught it in Chicago while there on business as my NYC tickets were for January.

[TheOtherOne2]

Posted: 12/13/25 at 11:55am

Auggie27 said: "The eloquent Shaw review - highlighting the distinctAmericana in Hunter's story - is, in the best sense, triggering. The play is closing in no small part because it's a non-event offering in an "event" forwardecosystem. Ticket pricing as a liability remains a controversial topic, because we're told that even short runs require a preponderance of near premium seats to ensure return on the dollar. But here's where we hit a sociological wall: A show like Hunter's - about the struggling class of a red state, surviving COVID by the skin of their teeth, facing a bleak post-pandemic society wherein needed connections between isolated people are strained, tenuous - is a populist tale.

It's a small canvas illustration of small(er) lives - not dramatizing Oedipus or Norma Desmond - perfectly scaled. The very people who would see themselves and their communities in the play's world-building are shut out from the outset. The next argument goes like this, "Yeah, but after Broadway comes publication, and community theaters can do it everywhere." So this turns the premiere in New York into the Cannes Film Festival for new plays, creating a kind of trickle-down art form wherein the people who might most appreciate depicted lives and experiences won't have access to them until it's no longer in the hands of top tier professionals."

You should watch "Sullivan's Travels."

 

[MysteriousLady]

Posted: 12/13/25 at 6:13pm

No shade to Shaw but Auggie27 should have gotten the job. 

[BJR]

Posted: 12/13/25 at 7:22pm

SteveSanders said: "Easy to imagine this getting a fair number of regional productions in the years ahead. Glad I caught it in Chicago while there on business as my NYC tickets were for January."

Oh absolutely.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/9/26 at 10:45am

Licensing rights acquired by Concord Theatricals

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/27/26 at 4:44pm

Laurie Metcalf Defends Her Work With Scott Rudin

I knew Steppenwolf relinquished the rights to the play, but I wasn’t aware of Laurie Metcalf’s direct involvement, “Earlier this season, she starred in Little Bear Ridge Road, which was initially commissioned by the beloved Chicago-based theater company Steppenwolf in 2024. When Rudin initially offered to produce Little Bear’s transfer to Broadway, Steppenwolf declined his offer because of the allegations. When no other producers wanted to do the show, The New Yorker now reports that Metcalf “threatened to quit” the company if it didn’t relinquish the rights to the play.”

I’m surprised Steppenwolf leadership wouldn’t have called her bluff.

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 4/27/26 at 4:54pm

Steppenwolf needs Laurie Metcalf a good deal more than Laurie Metcalf needs Steppenwolf. Like. By a lot. Steppenwolf has been artistically adrift since the last few years of the Shapiro administration.

Additionally, Laurie Metcalf is an original member. Burning that bridge would hurt the long term legacy of the company in a way that I think would be difficult to recover from. 

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 4/27/26 at 4:55pm

KJisgroovy said: "Steppenwolf needs Laurie Metcalf a good deal more than Laurie Metcalf needs Steppenwolf. Like. By a lot. Steppenwolf has been artisticallyadrift since the last few years of the Shapiro administration.

Additionally, Laurie Metcalf is an original member. Burning that bridge would hurt the long term legacy of the company in a way that I think would be difficult to recover from."

To be fair, these Chicago legacy ensemble theaters are in desperate need of new blood...... 

[BoringBoredBoard40]

Posted: 4/27/26 at 5:37pm

KJisgroovy said: "Steppenwolf needs Laurie Metcalf a good deal more than Laurie Metcalf needs Steppenwolf. Like. By a lot. Steppenwolf has been artisticallyadrift since the last few years of the Shapiro administration.

Additionally, Laurie Metcalf is an original member. Burning that bridge would hurt the long term legacy of the company in a way that I think would be difficult to recover from."

In the last five years they have transferred more than one show to Broadway, including one that won Best Play and a Pulitzer…what are you talking about artistically adrift? 

[AC126748]

Posted: 4/28/26 at 8:04am

KJisgroovy said: "Steppenwolf needs Laurie Metcalf a good deal more than Laurie Metcalf needs Steppenwolf. Like. By a lot. Steppenwolf has been artistically adrift since the last few years of the Shapiro administration.

Additionally, Laurie Metcalf is an original member. Burning that bridge would hurt the long term legacy of the company in a way that I think would be difficult to recover from."

Laurie Metcalf has appeared in exactly three Steppenwolf shows since the year 2000. I doubt anyone except the most hardcore theater nerds think of her first and foremost as a "Steppenwolf actress." The idea that her leaving the ensemble would do irreparable harm to the company is frankly laughable. As is the suggestion that Steppenwolf is in some kind of death spiral when they just produced the reigning Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award Best Play winner.

 

Updated On: 4/28/26 at 08:04 AM

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 4/28/26 at 10:44am

KJisgroovy didn't say Steppenwolf is in "some kind of a death spiral."   "Artistically adrift" was the description, something far less extreme.

I'm not sure I would even go that far.  But as a long-time patron, I would say that despite the continued high quality of many individual productions, I do find the most recent seasons taken as a whole to be more of a mixed bag in terms of productions choices.

 

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 4/28/26 at 10:49am

At Steppenwolf, Purpose was unfinished and well into the run actors were holding scripts and calling for lines. The success of the show itself is BJJ's and the actors' accomplishments and is only partially Steppenwolf's.

There are many, many, many other issues with the current (and former) artist directors decisions that you are likely unaware of because you don't live in Chicago. They have fired a good portion of their staff. They have drastically reduced programming. They have eliminated their REMARKABLE Theater for Young Audience programming. The ensemble theater which cost a FORTUNE is artistically unsuccesful and constantly malfunctions.

Yes. They have produced great work. Yes. The shows that they have transferred have been quite wonderful. A good deal of the work that you have not seen has been both terrible and unprepared.

Laurie Metcalf has appeared in more Steppenwolf shows in the last 25 years than many, many, many other core ensemble members. She was in nearly all of the important, legacy defining Steppenwolf shows. She is absolutely essential to the legacy of Steppenwolf. Choosing her over... not letting the show be produced is not a surprise. They still count Martha Plimpton and John Malkovich as ensemble members, despite very public separations. They still count Jim Snyder as an ensemble member despite the very real allegations against Profiles Theater, which he was intimately involved. Jim True-Frost hasn't been in a show at Steppenwolf in 30 years and is still listed among the ensemble. Five DEAD people are still listed in the ensemble. They were not going to delist Laurie Metcalf over this.

I get your reaction and if I didn't live in Chicago I would probably feel the same way. And I do agree that ensembles need new blood, especially at Steppenwolf. That doesn't invalidate what I said tho.