I saw this tonight, going in essentially blind (I've never read or seen the play and only really knew it was about two families). On the whole I enjoyed it and found it rather charming for a lot of the duration, but I was puzzled by the ending. I thought the third act conceptually was pretty interesting, but it just seemed to end rather abruptly. And while I wouldn't say the pacing of the show overall was rushed, it did feel rather brisk. But not knowing the play at all, I'm not sure how much of that is inherent in the play itself and how much of that is Kenny Leon's direction.
I rather enjoyed Jim Parsons in this, a lot more than in Mother Play especially. I thought he had a great energy as the Stage Manager and it was even just interesting to watch him watching the scenes play out. Ephraim Sykes, Katie Holmes, and Julie Halston were other standout actors for me but I wouldn't really say there's a weak link anywhere (I found John McGinty a bit hard to understand but most of it could be figured out).
I was pretty surprised at how quickly the play flew by, especially since it didn't feel like "gripping drama" in the same way something like Hills of California did. But whenever the Stage Manager announced the ends of the acts, it seemed like both he and the audience were confused as to whether there should be applause there, and like I said, the ending felt pretty abrupt. Maybe it was just that Jim Parsons didn't deliver the last lines with a tone of finality that I was expecting, but I thought there might be something more conclusive, especially since people had mentioned how emotionally moved they were by other productions. It's probably part of the pacing, but I felt like I never truly got invested in the idea of this town enough to feel anything really (though the briskness does demonstrate some of the larger themes discussed in the show, but I guess the tradeoff is just how it feels for the audience).
That said, I liked the general use of music in this show (not sure how much of the diegetic music is usually in the show), and I thought the set, lighting and sound design were all wonderfully done, though I'm not convinced that the onstage seating adds much of anything.
I got a lottery ticket which was row D front mezz all the way on the left. It wasn't a huge issue but some scenes in the Gibbs house were blocked a little by the box and the lights hanging from it.
.jpg?format=auto&width=365)
