MARY JANE Reviews

NY Stage Review

MARY JANE: RACHEL MCADAMS, SUFFERING WITH A SMILE

By Frank Scheck

★★★★☆ The movie star makes her Broadway debut in Amy Herzog's award-winning drama about a mother caring for a seriously ill child.

https://nystagereview.com/2024/04/23/mary-jane-rachel-mcadams-suffering-with-a-smile/

The Guardian

Mary Jane review – Rachel McAdams makes a magnetic Broadway debut

Four stars

The Oscar nominee is a captivating emotional anchor in this drama about a mother coping with her child’s health problems

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/apr/23/rachel-mcadams-mary-jane-review

Vulture (McHenry) is positive

Review: Rachel McAdams Contends with Reality in 'Mary Jane'

Making her impressive Broadway debut as the title character in 'Mary Jane,' Rachel McAdams offers a layered depiction of navigating a parenting nightmare.

https://www.vulture.com/article/review-mary-jane-rachel-mcadams.html

"That tonal balance is delicate, and it could tilt in any number of directions: too grim and it might be impossible to watch (I would understand someone not wanting to engage with the premise), too woo-woo and it might become sentimental. It asks a lot, specifically, of the actress playing Mary Jane. Rachel McAdams turns out to be more than up for the task. She’s making her Broadway debut (if you vaguely recall her as a Canadian Shakespearean, you’re probably thinking of Slings & Arrows), but as she often does onscreen, McAdams works in ways that tend toward the understated, yet precisely observed. Crucially, she and Kauffman don’t treat Mary Jane as too much of a saint; in fact, she plays the part as someone who’s well-meaning but a flibbertigibbet. (A contrast to the 2017 Off Broadway version with Carrie Coon, who has an essential core of steel.)

Early on, I wondered if McAdams had fallen into the classic movie-actor trap of going too big once you get into a theater, but she used that energy to calibrate the character. In the first half, Mary Jane keeps making ill-timed half-jokes, which McAdams delivers with “Look at me” neediness. As Alex’s condition worsens, however, McAdams layers more anger and frustration into those jokes; her pointed, sometimes relentless niceness is more visible as a coping mechanism. Through that choice, I could see Mary Jane more clearly as a person, not just an archetype living through an experience. McAdams’s take helps draw out the arc underneath the surface of Herzog’s chain of one-on-one conversations. I was struck, at the end of the play, by her haunted stillness."

Theatermania:

Review: Amy Herzog’s Mournful Lullaby Mary Jane Comes to Broadway With Rachel McAdams

Manhattan Theatre Club presents a new staging of Herzog’s 2017 drama, directed by Anne Kauffman.

https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-amy-herzogs-mournful-lullaby-mary-jane-comes-to-broadway-with-rachel-mcadams_1737981/

"McAdams, in her Broadway debut, does a commendable job in an extremely difficult role. She performs Mary Jane’s long arc, especially her mind and body’s gradual wearing down, with minute attention to detail. However, I can’t help feeling that a different performer could have been stronger and rawer. The supporting cast is, without exception, exceptional. Sanitago is tender and sincere, Wehle sturdy and wise, Pourfar overwhelmed and stalwart, and Matthis intimate and distant. It is no coincidence that the cast is all women, and that the two professional caregivers are played by a Black actor. As Mary Jane highlights, care almost always falls on the shoulders of women, particularly women of color."

NYT Critic's Pick from Green

‘Mary Jane’ Review: When Parenting Means Intensive Care

Amy Herzog’s heartbreaker arrives on Broadway with Rachel McAdams as the alarmingly upbeat mother of a fearfully sick child.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/theater/mary-jane-review-rachel-mcadams.html

"This turn toward questions of faith, and the way they finally breach Mary Jane’s defenses, took me by surprise. I hadn’t remembered the play that way, perhaps because I’d seen it first through parental tears. Now, as its chorus of diverse women suggests, it seems to be about everyone’s participation in loss.

What has changed? Other than a brief allusion to the pandemic, little in the script. The shrewd staging, by Anne Kauffman, looks and sounds much the same, too. Lael Jellinek’s set performs its wondrous midcourse transformation; Leah Gelpe’s soundtrack of susurrations and beeps implies what the rest keeps hidden. New to the production, Brenda Abbandandolo delivers pinpoint costumes (the Orthodox mother’s outfit is a triumph) and Ben Stanton makes marvelous images from streetlights, night lights and hospital fluorescents. The cast, returning or not, is unimprovable.

It’s McAdams, with her fetching warmth, who alters the temperature. If Carrie Coon’s more businesslike approach in 2017 was also valid, the greater distance between McAdams’s natural sunniness and Mary Jane’s reality enhances the play’s tension. It leaves you to wonder what Mary Jane was like before Alex’s illness gave overwhelming purpose to her life — and, more painfully and permanently, what she will be like after it no longer does."

The Wrap is (eventually?) positive

‘Mary Jane’ Broadway Review: Rachel McAdams Goes From Mom to Hero to Saint

The actor makes her Broadway debut in Amy Herzog’s play about a parent who cares for a child with severe challenges

https://www.thewrap.com/mary-jane-broadway-review-rachel-mcadams/

"In the scenes set in the apartment, the four visitors tend to take focus away from Mary Jane. Each of the four actors is exemplary, but there’s too much still air on stage before each of them can establish her presence, especially in the play’s first half. Stoic is not an easy look to convey to an audience, and McAdams’ performance doesn’t really take shape until Mary Jane sets up residence in the hospital. Ultimately, McAdams gets her big theatrical moment, but much of the play’s power comes from Herzog’s scheme to withhold that moment. We expect Mary Jane to break down, explode, get pissed off long before she does. What sets her off is unexpected. It’s worth the wait."

DTLI Consensus: A haunting, harrowing portrait of love, loss, and community, led by a heartbreaking Rachel McAdams.

8 positive (including the NYT).

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/mary-jane/

Updated On: 4/23/24 at 09:42 PM

Theatrely:

Rachel McAdams Triumphs in MARY JANE — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/rachel-mcadams-triumphs-in-mary-jane-review

The Distinctive Baritone said: "Looks like Sarah Paulson now has some real competition for the Tony."

i see why you say that but i find that so hard to believe- McAdams is very good, dont get me wrong, but its a solid debut, not the "best of the season" performance.... tbd

A Tony race between Rachel McAdams & Sarah Paulson. A gift!

Hollywood Reporter

‘Mary Jane’ Theater Review: Rachel McAdams Makes a Moving Broadway Debut in Amy Herzog’s Portrait of Motherhood Under Duress

The actress plays a single mother navigating an unforgiving healthcare system while caring for her sick child.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/mary-jane-review-rachel-mcadams-broadway-debut-1235879665/

"It’s as if these actors are also buoying McAdams, who makes her Broadway debut here. She takes cues from these women, modulating the pitch of her performance to keep in tune, and only occasionally falls into the dramatic traps of Hollywood stars taking the stage. Overall, it’s a searching and poignant turn, finding and offering us different versions of Mary Jane."

MemorableUserName said: "Broadway’s ‘Mary Jane’ Starring Rachel McAdams Gets Two-Week Extension

Now through Sunday, June 16."

Surprising that they'd close the day of the Tony Awards.