PICTURES FROM HOME - Reviews & News Thread — Page 3

Always interesting to see what gets produced

SouthernCakes said: "Always interesting to see what gets produced"

Truly. Sharr White must have money and connections. This sounds like something that would have trouble getting put up at a community theatre.

This is what leaves writers who can't get a seat at the table scratching their heads.

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I caught this on Friday night and I think that so far I am the most enthusiastic about the evening. I found it to be thoughtful, engaging and quite moving (as well as funny of course.) The concept and usage of the film and photos was appropriate for the piece and direct communication with the audience worked well. After all, the son is a college professor and the direct engagement seemed appropriate. It was a well cast evening that mined all of the pathos and comedy. Is it because I am only a few years younger than our protagonist that thoughts of my parents flooded my senses through the evening? Perhaps. Whatever it was that spoke to me was rich and special and I certainly wasn't expecting to respond to the evening as well as I did.

The added bonus for me was that perhaps due to the very cold evening my TDF tickets were in the 4th row aisle in the orchestra. Curious how the critics respond.

Had seen this earlier in the run and was invited by a friend to see it again tonight. I thought the show had been tightened, and that the performances were sterling. Surprised how moved I was by Burstein; Zoe Wanamaker was superb and Nathan Lane was truly wonderful. The play itself, for my money, truly works as an exploration of the art of photography and as a very human look at the interpersonal relationships of parents and their offspring. The humor is reflected in those relationships and I must say I laughed as much at that interplay as I have at any play in the past few seasons. It's real, honest and unforced. So count me on the plus side for this one.

Getting home from tonight's performance. A very interesting show and premise. I don't think it's entirely successful in what it wants to do but overall, I did enjoy it for what it was. I'd be extremely interested to know the ages of people who saw it and said they didn't enjoy it. Just my own life experience (and my friend who accompanied) this really hit home in a few different places, me in my 40's and him a bit older. I think what Burstein's character goes through as far as accepting the aging and mortality of his parents is something that starts to come more into focus the older you get (and I'm speaking broadly), so if you're younger I'm not so sure it would hit the same.

Performances I thought were all very good with Lane giving a nicely toned down "Nathan Lane". Always a pleasure to see Wannamaker on stage and Bursting was truly excellent. It's not a play I'm probably going to see again - I think about these things enough on my own - but I am glad I saw it.

What the actual hell does being white have to do with people facing their fear that their parents are going to die?

The cast alone is aimed at a certain group

I think Jordan gets to an important point about age and the relevancy of this piece. Once you get in touch with your own mortality and begin the journey of "parenting your parents" (a topic that comes up often in my Psychotherapy practice), the introspection of the "circle of life" becomes quite relevant. I too am curious about the age of the people who respond well to this as opposed to those to don't regardless of any constructive criticism about the quality of the writing and conception of the production. As I posted earlier, I was projecting my own family's journey onto this canvas and was completely taken by the production.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Review-Roundup-PICTURES-FROM-HOME-Opes-On-Broadway-Starring-Nathan-Lane-Danny-Burstein-Zo-Wanamaker-20230209

Radio silence from Did They Like It...

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Surprised how kind Jesse Green was to it; in this case, I shamefully find myself nodding along to the NY Post's spot-on review.

I take the previous comments points about how age might dictate the reaction to this; certainly, the issues about aging and parental loss are more prevalent in my life (my parents are in their late 60s) than someone with young parents, and less prevalent than someone with even older parents.

But i perfectly connected to the theme here. There's just nothing remotely new/insightful/inventive in how its repeated over and over again. THere's no plot, no suspense. The minimal set work did....what exactly? I like the underlying point of the play just fine, and appreciate Larry Sultan's seminal photographic work, too. But didnt need him to talk to me about it for 2 hours.

Wonder if Lane will get a nomination for this. He (and he alone) certainly deserves it.

I enjoyed the play but mostly because of the acting and especially Nathan Lane. I feel that the theme of mortality was really only explored at the very end and that part was touching and well done.


However, the bulk of the play was about this annoying character who kept trying to make something out of “nothing”. Why couldn’t he just leave his parents be and reflect on the happy memory? Is it because as an academic, he had to be critical in examining pictures from home the same way he would critique others work to find meaning? Or was he projecting his own unhappiness and therefore avoiding his own family and trying to find faults in his parents because happiness can’t be real?

I don't think Jesse Green's review was particularly positive... calling it padded and a "tear-jerker".

Jackson McHenry reviewing in Vulture seems to be the only reviewer to have gone to the trouble to explain why the adaptation might be working against the grain of the source material:

...this underexamined undercurrent saps some of the ruthlessness in his photos, substituting a layer of nostalgia that does the play no good. A sense of boomer awe toward Greatest Generation parents creeps in — which then, given the Broadway audience, doubles outward into the room. Filial reverence dominates, and that’s not what the pictures themselves are getting at.