MERCURY FUR at The New Group — Page 2

I was seated in the second row of the main floor (right behind the "on stage" seating) on the side of the theater where the audience entered. From where I was sitting, the mezzanine seats didn't look terribly partial view -- and I was told by a friend who sat in the seats that are directly above the stage area that he didn't miss anything -- but I wasn't sitting up there, so I really can't say.

As Hogan said, this play won't be for everyone. I found it fascinating and I wouldn't categorize the acting as amateur in any way. Revolori, Paul Iacono as Lola, and actor who played Darren (I don't have my playbill in front of me) were particularly strong.

There were no walkouts that I could discern at the Saturday matinee. One woman got up and left, but returned. (I'm assuming it was a trip to the bathroom). The play was not 2 hours and 20 minutes. At the performance I attended, the show started late (around 10 after) but the actual running time was only a little over 2 hours.

There are two types of Mezzanine seats. And no, I was not comped - I BOUGHT my ticket. If I'm comped, I shut up and suck it up. 

The side mezzanine seats are fine. (One long row.) It's the ones that have three rows on risers that are the problem. Maybe someone much taller than me would have been fine but as soon as I sat down in my chair, Row E, Seat 7, more than half the stage disappeared from view. The bar was NOT the problem. 

Had I been on the side mezz seats, there would have been a bar and I would have been fine. Maybe you could've seen where I sat, but I couldn't and at least 75% of the stage DID disappear from view. Not just the offstage section, but the majority of the main stage area too. And I don't care if the ticket was only $25, that's absurd.

But hey. Go ahead and accuse me of being a liar. 

There are people on the other board who sat in my section also complaining.

I was seated in a "non-traditional seat" which was like a dining room chair with arms. The on stage seating included several couches and living room chairs, as Hogan said, in addition to other furniture. The seat was perfectly fine and comfortable enough -- certainly no less comfortable than your average theater seat.

BTW, The New Group is running a discount through their Facebook page where all seats (except the on-stage seating) is $25 for performances through 8/18. This is a good way to see the show and avoid a potentially partial-view mezzanine seat. The code is MFBOOK.

I LOVED IT... though I am completely disturbed by it. Not sure how anyone can be surprised the New Group would produce this... it seems to me that their one and only goal is to produce theatre that is controversial. 

Anyway, I saw this last night and found it fascinating, intense, and groundbreaking. The sets, the staging, the lighting, the acting were all brilliant!!! There are a few plot holes that leave you wondering how the apocalypse happened... but I felt like the piece was much more about the depths that people will go to when they have no other choices, and whether it is better to kill yourself or those you love or go on in living in horrendous situations. I think it's an important question that people have been asking more and more lately. If the apocalypse actually happened, would you kill your loved ones or let them be raped and tortured? The play is primal and seeks to study the primal aspects of man.

About twenty people walked out of the theatre thirty minutes into the piece when one of the boys asks another boy if they can jack each other off. Within a second or two a bunch of people just got up and left. Same thing used to happen at Spring Awakening during the jack off scene so that's no surprise to me. 

I think this is a courageous production and you need to form your own opinion on it, so I recommend NOT missing it, though like many have mentioned above it is not for the faint. It's not for those people that like to pretend that the horrors of the world don't exist because you'll be asked to face them head on in this play.

I had a seat in what I thought would be on the aisle in the second row in a non-traditional seat, and it was physically one of the worst experiences in a theatre I have ever had- it was a flat seat you might find in an elementary school with one side against a wall which partially obstructed my view of one part of the stage.  I felt like virtually a prisoner, surrounded by other seats which made legroom sparse, and my rear end wept from the non-existence of padding.  I was desperate for the play to end and it simply would not.  And this was a $75 seat- not the matinee of good theatre I had hoped for.

Many orchestra seats are wooden chairs with hard backs, the kind of chair I couldn't sit on for more than 15 minutes without developing aches/pains.  The mezzanine seats are even worse, with either a bar or the wall obstructing your view unless you contort your body to lean over the railing.  Many people walked out of the performance. It runs about 2 hours 18 minutes. 

Excruciatingly bad.  I wasn't shocked at anything they showed - these were things we've all seen 100 times before, done so much better in other shows.  This is simply a boring show that tries to be shocking, and fails miserably.  Save your time and money unless you want to be subjected to 2 hours 18 minutes of sitting in a hard wooden chair or a mezzanine seat with little to no view.

What's shocking is that someone actually decided to go through with this and put this on a New York stage.

Thanks HogansHero & everyone else who responded in regards to the seating.  

stevennyc hated the show and has taken his hatred out on the facts.

The show was reported here to be 2:05. when i saw it, it started 11 minutes late and ended 2:04 later so I assume Steven counts a late start in computing the running time. 

Most of the seats in the orchestra are the signature's stock. There are a few dining room/kitchen type chairs plus the aforementioned upholstered chairs. 

3 people walked out of the performance I saw, one returned after presumably going to the restroom. 

Obviously, some of us liked the show more than steven, some a lot more. It's hard to say if everyone who didn't like the show didn't like the seating and vice versa so there is a chicken and egg issue. 

Bottom line:

If you are inclined to see the show, obviously you should see it. Although it could use some trimming in a few spots, I did not find it boring at all and I thought most of the performances exceptional. It is the sort of show haters are gonna hate. If you don't like feral post-apocalyse teens or general creepiness, stay away. If worried about seating and sight lines, sit in the orchestra even numbered  rows C and D. 

Right, Steve, but the RUN TIME of the production is different from the amount of time before the time printed on the ticket and when it ended. 

Also, I really dig dystopian/post-apocalyptic stories. And I don't mind gore or "general creepiness" at all. I don't think those are the elements that should keep people away, but rather the amateur writing and the uneven performances.

PS I've loved so many of recent shows by The New Group - The Spoils, Rasheeda Speaking, Burning and even Clive (which many people hated).  Rasheeda Speaking and Burning are still engraved in my mind, I loved them so much.  They've done such great work in the past, which is why this total misfire is especially disappointing.

"If you don't like feral post-apocalyse teens or general creepiness, stay away."

They should use that as a pull quote.