Old Times Previews — Page 2

Play Esq. said: "Any thoughts on Thom York's incidental music?

My comment, afterward, was that it sounded like Radiohead's music. It didn't add anything to the production, but didn't detract from it, either. It is an odd juxtaposition from the snippets of standards that Deeley and Anna sing throughout the play.

Jordan Catalano said: "I'm very excited to be seeing this this afternoon."

I'll be there too, Jordan.

A friend of ours saw it today. He did not care for it nor did the person he went with.

Audience reaction at the end was the same as when we went - a lot of head scratching and wtf moments.

Just saw it tonight. I also enjoyed it a lot. Pinter is challenging, and definitely not for everyone, but this is the 3rd play of his that I've seen live (+3 that I've read, and one that I've acted in), and I've always loved his plays. I find them completely engrossing, and really enjoy the challenge of it. The performances were excellent, and the staging was also interesting.

When Anna compares Kate's outlook on life to the ripples made in water, I realized that the whole set was designed to look as if they were in the center of a rippling pond. Not sure how necessary that was, but it looked cool.

Maybe I'm not the best at reading audiences, but it seemed to me that our audience was enjoying it and going on the journey right along with the actors. I thought the play was funny, engaging and often very compelling.

Stage-door was not crowded at all. Maybe 25 people. All three came out and signed, though Clive seemed to be in a hurry. He only posed for pictures with a couple of people who had their cameras right at the ready.

This was the first Broadway show I've seen in ages that did not receive a standing ovation. I have a feeling half the audience had no idea the play was actually over. In any case, I think this one will likely receive bad word of mouth from audiences (if the reactions I overheard were any indication, anyway). It's an odd play with interesting moments but definitely not worth the outrageous ticket prices that are attached to it. Clive Owen is still a terrific and compelling actor but he deserved a bigger Broadway debut than this.

Curious to see what reviews it gets. I can see it getting mixed.

It didn't get a standing ovation because the average age of roundabout subscribers is 210 and they haven't been able to stand since they took their grandkids to see the original production of SHOW BOAT.

It's taken me some time to write about this one because it wasn't an easy play. This is the third Pinter play I've seen and I must say that I've enjoyed none of them. This one might be my least hated because it's thankfully short. After doing some research and looking over interpretations of the play on wikipedia, I think it's fairly interesting. The problem is that none of that translated to the stage and the result was just a mishmosh of chatter.

All of the actors are up to the task and Clive Owen is great in his Broadway debut. I wish he had a better vehicle to showcase his talents because I don't think this is going to be successful even in its short run. It would be amazing if Clive could be in a revival of CLOSER because that's my favorite performance of his.

The set is serviceable but the turntable seemed like such an unnecessary gimmick. The whole constantly turning set reminded me a lot of GRACE but at least there it made sense to the story on stage. I had a huge problem with the weird ice block but was also really bothered by the record player and scattered records laying about because they never related to anything.

The best part of the whole thing was the music. Yes it sounded like Radiohead but it really brought an air of suspense that was lacking.

The crowd I was with didn't give a standing ovation which has become expected by today's standards. This wasn't the best way to start off Roundabout's 50th anniversary season.

Updated On: 9/22/15 at 01:14 PM

So this set revolves slowly, too, huh? You're going to see that again in the hilariously nonsensical Young Vic transfer of Streetcar later this year. It seems that the Brits are really enjoying novelty distractions lately...

K.

Kind of tired reading on this chat line, for example the comment above here, about audience members complaining that the actor didn't sign all autographs, pose for all pictures with everyone waiting, etc. You pay to see the show and the actor does his/her job for you on the stage for two or more hours- I realize OLD TIMES is shorter but still- and then their job is over. Afterwards maybe they're tired, or maybe they have an interview to go to or maybe they have a dentist app't. or maybe they have a date or whatever. The comment above putting Mr. Owen down with such disgust because he didn't do exactly what this audience member wanted is beyond me.

I recently saw an actor, whom I won't name, who gave a tremendous performance- never off the stage for 2 1/2 hrs. I sat there with my mouth open spellbound by his energy. Now if this actor wanted to just go home afterwards then he should be able to do just that. I never understood this mind set that actors must put on a sort of another show after their show.

At the performance I saw on Thursday, the applause was also mostly just polite. What I found particularly striking, though, was the coughing and loud yawning that ricocheted around the auditorium more and more as the evening progressed. It became so extreme that I couldn't help hearing it as passive-aggressive criticism of the show.

Anyway, I thought the performance was a bit weak overall, and I'd blame the acting and direction much more than the text. I got the sense that Owen and Best were trying to "keep things moving" and avoid ponderousness but, as a result, they glazed over or raced past a lot of meaning.

For instance, there's a point where Owen's character, a filmmaker, is speaking about a movie he made. He says, approximately: "I wrote the script and directed it. My name is Orson Welles." To my ear, Owen just ran those two sentences together in a manic near-monotone that made the second sentence sound bizarre -- like, where the **** did that come from? However, any number of slower, more careful readings could have made it sound like something that his movie-loving character might naturally say as a joke (whether playful or bitter or what have you), because he's basically just quoting the spoken credits of an old movie about old times (The Magnificent Ambersons).

Similarly, Best seemed to treat some long passages as blocks of text to be read with a certain "tone" (loud superciliousness, for instance) without much thought as to why those specific words would be coming out of the character's mouth. Whether or not that was intentional, I, at least, didn't find it effective.

To my recollection, Kelly Reilly's performance was considerably better, but it may only be because she had fewer extended speeches to steamroll in the first place.

Jordan ripping into old people? What a shock - not.

One day , Jordan will be among the ranks of the elderly. Hopefully he will receive more tolerance of his age than he has been to others