Mothers and Sons Previews- Page 2

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/25/14 at 11:07pm

I hope it lasts and you get to see it too. :)

As others have mentioned it really needs to be playing at a subscription house where it would have stood a chance. It could catch on, like The Normal Heart did, but not if the producers don't start paying for a little advertising ASAP. You can't expect something to sell if no one knows it's running.

Edit: It was 90 minutes, no intermission, and yes I felt like I got a full serving of play. I only paid TDF price, but I feel like I more than got my money's worth.

Updated On: 2/25/14 at 11:07 PM

[GreasedLightning]

Posted: 2/26/14 at 12:59am

Where was your TDF seat, if you don't mind?

Edit: Because the last time I was in the Golden, I was in the last row of the mezz and I'm not sure that I could endure that again. Updated On: 2/26/14 at 12:59 AM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 2/26/14 at 1:08am

Me thinks if it's as dead as people have said you could easily move down once the lights go down.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/26/14 at 7:39am

TDF had us in front mezz. Really great seats.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/26/14 at 7:49am

Before I see anything else this is the next show I am going to see.

Thanks for the excellent review Whizzer.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 2/26/14 at 8:11am

Yes, a thousand thank-yous, Whizzer! This wasn't really on my radar, but now I'm hoping word of mouth takes it at least to April!

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 2/26/14 at 9:59am

I was there with Whizzer last night and I have to chime in and echo his thoughts. MOTHERS AND SONS really did feel like an extension of THE NORMAL HEART and it was really excellent.

Tyne Daly is wonderful as the mother who is not as accepting, but due to her circumstances, you still feel sorry for her. Frederick Weller was outstanding last night, and Bobby Steggert was very good too, in a slightly smaller role.

On a personal note, I totally related to the play because my partner and I have an age difference, similar to Bobby and Frederick in the play. Also, my father is not as understanding and I felt like he was like the Tyne Daly character in the play. Much of the play affected me on a personal level, which made me enjoy it even more.

Terrence McNally's words touch upon something we all can relate to, and plays like this absolutely need to be seen by everyone to open their eyes as to what is going on in this world. I know it is 2014, but there is still so much the world can learn about tolerance and acceptance and McNally does a brilliant job here bringing this issue into the foreground. Please do not pass this one up.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 7:51am

Terrence McNally has written some good plays, but not, unfortunately, recently. This season's And Away We We Go was abysmal, and this one is a clunker. It's like a run-down jalopy that lies there, inert, until you manage to crank up the engine, whereupon it sputters and moves two feet and breaks down again. It's badly written and structured. The first scene of meaningless descriptions of a Central Park view goes on for an eternity while poor Tyne Daly is left to stand there looking dazed and confused. While at the same we're bored out of our minds. There's no consistency to the characterizations. Motivations for getting characters on and off stage are clumsy. A little boy conveniently cries for help off stage so that a character can leave the other two behind for yet another listless argument. Much of the play is a tract that we've heard many times before on stage, and in far better plays. This makes the play seem stale and outdated. There's a misogynistic aspect to the depiction of the mother, whose hateful, inhuman callousness is beyond the pale. Poor Tyne Daly to be saddled with a role like this.

*SPOILER ALERT!!! ENDING REVEALED!!*





Why the boy would want this woman as a grandmother after meeting her for ten minutes is truly ludicrous. Does he do this with every woman of a certain age he meets for the first time? Also, her "defrosting " at the last moment, while the couple gazes upon her beatifically after wishing she had never come all evening long is just one of the many aspects of this play that fail the test of credibility.


Updated On: 2/27/14 at 07:51 AM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 8:05am

What is misogynistic about Daly's character? Any actress would be so lucky to land such a plum part. Maybe she can turn to you for a shoulder to cry on about this role she has been "saddled with" when she is nominated all award season for her outstanding work.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 8:14am

^

It's a hateful, cards-stacked-against-her portrayal of a woman. I felt sorry for Tyne Daly who could make nothing of that character. No actress could.

And if she gets nominated for awards for this, well, good for her! She deserves something for soldiering through a part like this.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 8:22am

It's not hateful at all. As WAT noted, one is still able to feel pity and understanding for this woman, but that of course assumes one is able to feel at all.

I had great compassion for Daly's character and still fail to see the alleged misogyny.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 8:25am

^

I can feel. I can feel disgust at misogyny.

I can think, too. Would that you could say the same.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 9:25am

I don't mean this to be rude, but After Eight. Do you like anything ever?

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 9:58am

^
Good to know you were not meaning to be rude :) i guess a previous poster already filled the day's quota in that regard.

In any case, to answer your question...... Sure. Why just yesterday I was thinking about how much I loved Any Wednesday. I was even singing the special tilte song Harnick & Bock wrote for Barbara Cook when she took over the part. Both she and the play were wonderful.

But to get back on topic, and to say something positive about Mothers and Sons, I thought the set was good.

[dave1606]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 10:25am

I saw this show this week and really enjoyed it. I thought the writing was beautiful, and all three main performances were excellent. Tyne Daly makes a tough character work. Yes, she could easily be a hateful woman, but I found both her performance and the writing much more nuanced than that.

[CoreyRyan3]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 10:30am

Oh, look, After Eight is still complaining about EVERY show he sees. Once again, all of BWW questions why he even goes to the the theatre if all he's going to do is complain about what he saw. But still, there is no end in sight.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 10:36am

I've gotta disagree with After Eight. I found Tyne's to be an incredibly well-written and well-performed role. I found myself pitying her, even if she was a "monster".

[HogansHero]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 10:37am

Sometimes, one has to separate how we feel about characters in a play and a performance. We may wish that there were no people like Daly's character, but there are. Does that mean you have to enjoy seeing them portrayed on stage? No. You can limit your theatre-going to neatly worked out stories about uncomplicated people. But this is still a very fine play, with wonderful performances, albeit one that may not find an audience and seems a poor choice for commercial production. Misogyny? wrong word I suspect, but it is unclear what it is attempting to suggest. (Oh and if you were bored by the window scene at the top of the play, and don't appreciate everything it does, then there is really very little hope for you as a theatre-goer. Maybe a Disney cartoon is more your speed.

[BwayGeek2]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 12:01pm

Thanks Whizzer and WithoutATrace, I'm going to try and grab a rush ticket this weekend. Glad to hear such positive reviews because I love Tyne Daly.

[Patash]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 1:29pm

I saw the show at Bucks County but haven't yet caught it on Broadway. I'm sort of stunned with some of the remarks by AfterEight. That opening scene? Yes it was awkward -- there were many pauses and silences. If you could't figure out that the whole set up was that Tyne Daly's character was dying to say something but just couldn't get up the nerve to start it, then too bad. To me it perfectly set up the tension and tentativeness that all the characters had in this fateful meeting. I won't say the show isn't without problems and it left a few questions unanswered -- although I attended a talk back session with Mr. McNally and I've wondered if any of those comments by a number of the audience have been addressed since then.

To pick at things like a child off stage calling for help as a way to leave two characters alone on stage -- has it been done before and will it be done again? Of course, it's a working device and it works here. Someone is really searching to pick to even bring up such a thing.

Is it the best play ever written? No? Is it amazingly groundbreaking and innovative? Not really. But is it a thought provoking and interesting play with some really good performances (particularly from Ms. Daly)? Absolutely.

But AfterEight, the only "good play" that came to mind was nearly 50 years ago? Good grief, why do you bother with theatre at all or are you simply a masochist?

Updated On: 2/27/14 at 01:29 PM

[dreaming]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 1:37pm

@Bwaygeek-Did they announce a rush? I really am interested in this.

[musicalman2]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 1:39pm

After Eight, I have not yet seen the play, though I am going to. I love Tyne Daly. But I am not sure I understand what you are getting at by alluding to the misogyny.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 2:42pm

Musicalman,

The misogyny is portraying this woman to be as gratuitously hateful as she acts here, wholly beyond the realm of credibility. The playwright stacks the deck against her, and he makes sure she's going to come off as odiously as possible. She's described as a gorgon in the play, and that she is, but her boorishness to both her son and his lover, her callous references to her husband, her barging in to another person's home unexpectedly and insulting him repeatedly, her hateful diatribes, it's all a case of piling it on excessively, far more than what is needed or than what one can believe. She's not just a gorgon, she's an affront.



Updated On: 2/27/14 at 02:42 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 2:45pm

A terrible person who happens to be a woman = / = misogyny.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/27/14 at 3:09pm

"Maybe a Disney cartoon is more your speed."

You're right. It's definitely more my speed. I'll take Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland any day over this clunker.