PRAYER FOR MY ENEMY Reviews- Page 2

[BroadwayGuy12]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 3:16pm

Mike: I totally agree with what you said about the play taking a while to "sink in". I saw the show about 2 weeks ago and I'm STILL thinking about it constantly. Groff's performance was especially captivating, and I love it more and more as I reflect back on it. I actually really like the fact that it's stuck with me, though. It made the play much more memorable and meaningful.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 3:27pm

Groff looked so great with his short haircut. Such a nice guy too.

[Sleeper2]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 4:41pm

I loved it and find myself thinking about it weeks after I saw it, too.

I loved every bit of it, especially the growth of the characters as their arc led them to be more honest with each other and themselves. Brilliant, brilliant play.

[Insider2]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 6:34pm

Worst show I've seen in ages, hands down. A re-post of my review that is under another thread is below, since this seems to be the preferred "review" thread:

"Last night, at about 9:45, I said a little prayer. I prayed that I could get the last hour and forty-five minutes of my life back. I prayed that I could reverse the flow of time and NOT click the "buy" button on Ticket Central. I prayed that I could snap my fingers and get my sixty-five dolalrs back. I prayed that Craig Lucas would have just left his horrible new play, A PRAYER FOR MY ENEMY in whatever sludge heap it came from. And I prayed that no ticket buyer in this terrible economy would be tempted to plop down money to suffer my same fate.

A PRAYER FOR MY ENEMY is a rambling, nonsensical, pretentious, directionless, and mind-numbingly dull piece of garbage. It is the worst kind of play - a play that thinks it has a lot to say but instead says nothing at all...and takes nearly two intermissionless hours to do so.

The saddest part of all is that the actors are absolutely fantastic. To saddle pros like Victoria Clark with this kind of inferior material is just criminal.

The plot is so slight that if you blink you will miss it. It is mostly just a clothes line of an excuse that Lucas uses to hang various preposterous monologues to show us how clever he is...or thinks he is.

The characters are stereotypes - the drunk; the troubled Iraq vet; the neurotic comic relief; the guy struggling with his sexuality; and these people do not interact with each other in any way that makes them feel even slightly real. The overall result is a big whoosh of "who cares".

I would be willing to bet that if this play were written by an unknown writer and submitted to any theatre company in the world, it would never be produced. The only reason this has received a starry Playwrights Horizons production is because undeneath the title, it said "by Craig Lucas". Were this his very first play, it may have also been his last.

If you are thinking about buying a ticket to this play, I would urge you to think again, or at least wait for the reviews."

[snl89]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 7:51pm

"Groff looked so great with his short haircut. Such a nice guy too."

Not gonna lie- when I watched the video preview, the very first thing I thought was "omg he cut all his curls off!" I loved the curls <3 But, you know, it's Groff- he's never going to look BAD :P In fact, he looks very nice with short hair! It just took me aback. I was very partial to his hair hehe


And yeah, Victoria Clark definitely looks amazing just from the preview. I loove the part of her monologue that they show. It's prob my fav part of the video :)

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 11:02pm

AM New York gives the show 2 Stars out of 4:

'About halfway through Craig Lucas’ new drama “Prayer for My Enemy" at Playwrights Horizons, we suddenly made the following quick prayer: “Please end this tortuous show as soon as humanly possible.” Unfortunately for us, the 100-minute intermission-less play continued to its full conclusion.

This is not to say that we don’t admire the ingenuity and ambition of Craig Lucas...'

http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/stage/blog/


Newsday is a Rave:

'Bartlett Sher, the master who directed the luscious "South Pacific" and collaborated with Lucas on "The Light in the Piazza," gets his quiet powerhouse of a cast to juggle cosmic questions with the casual absurdities of family life. This includes Jonathan Groff ("Spring Awakening") as the soldier in Iraq who joined the Reserves to prove his masculinity to his alcoholic bipolar father (the wrenching Skipp Sudduth) and Victoria Clark (a Tony winner from "Piazza") as a needy yet flinty New York visitor caring for her dying mother in a parallel story down the road.

Although the descriptions suggest stock characters, the people churn with off-center individuality and - despite a yearning for civility - some marvelous fits of rudeness. Lucas does this by weaving internal monologues into the conversations. Often, we can easily separate private thoughts from public discussions. In creepier moments, we're not quite sure who is meant to hear what.'

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/wednesday/partii/ny-etpray5958072dec10a,0,2810984.story

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 11:06pm

Variety is Very Negative:

'The folks onstage in Craig Lucas' "Prayer for My Enemy" are all struggling to make sense of themselves and their roles in a mystifying universe. The play touches on relationships, family, sexuality, addictions, war, resentment and forgiveness, nature and technology, the anger and violence that ripple through contemporary life -- you name it. But this attention-deficit therapy session is all jangled, raw nerves, never pausing long enough on any subject to settle on a lucid theme or establish a discernible point of view. Despite Bartlett Sher's customarily classy staging and a topnotch cast, most audiences will find themselves as unmoored as the characters.'

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939186.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 11:08pm

Just as I expected, a mixed bag.

This is going to continue throughout the night, as more reviews come out. I'm sure of it. It's just "one of those" pieces.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 11:08pm

The Associated Press is Negative:

'Craig Lucas' "Prayer for My Enemy" is a fractured play about a fractured family, a jagged piece of uneasy domestic drama that benefits from a game cast and the sharp direction of Bartlett Sher.

...If "Prayer for My Enemy" ultimately proves too unwieldy for its own good, there are still the pleasures of watching these actors work their way through Lucas' thicket of words — as well as the evening's poignant silences. Their performances are what you'll remember from this odd, overstuffed play.'

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/ap_en_re/theater_review_prayer_for_my_enemy

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 11:11pm

Ben Brantley at the New York Times is Very Negative:

'...For while “Prayer for My Enemy” dares to ask smart and hard questions about a homegrown violence that reaches from suburban backyards into the battlefields of Iraq, it often suffers from the same muddle-headedness that plagues its uneasy and uncertain characters. And though the production features several stirring and eloquent performances from a cast that includes the Tony-winning Victoria Clark (for the musical “The Light in the Piazza”) and the rising young star Jonathan Groff, it is ultimately too disconnected to move us as it means to.

Part of this, I am astonished to say, is a matter of direction. Mr. Sher, who collaborated with Mr. Lucas on “The Light in the Piazza” and won a Tony for his stunning work on the Lincoln Center Theater revival of “South Pacific,” is the fair-haired boy among New York directors at the moment, and with good reason. But here he surprisingly fails to elicit the seductive, unifying music in Mr. Lucas’s prose and, more crucially, to bring clarity to a play that needs all the illumination it can get.'

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/theater/reviews/10bran.html?ref=theater

Updated On: 12/10/08 at 11:11 PM

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 11:32pm

Might have to try the student rush this week. I sort of forgot about this show, but I really want to see Victoria Clark live.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 11:56pm

She's definitely worth it.

The performances themselves are really, really solid - All the way around, really. Ms. Clark shines ever-so-brightly throughout the 90+ minutes. If only the text was more 'focused'. That's my only complaint. It was saying TOO much in so little time. No time for those of us hanging onto (as many) words as we could to breathe ... To reflect. I'd happily give this one a 7.5 out of 10.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 3:18am

BUMP.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 4:27am

I wouldn't label Brantley's review "Very Negative".

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 4:28am

Updated On: 12/10/08 at 04:28 AM

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 12:46pm

Brantley's review is hardly a pan. More mixed, I'd say
TONY is a rave

[squeakyfromme82]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 1:31pm

I agree with revbeth's comments 100%. I think the intention was better than the end result and Lucas tried to put too much in there. But I'm still thinking about the show 2 weeks later, and the performances were absolutely first rate.

[Insider2]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:40pm

And I still want my money and my time back.

[stevenycguy]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 4:05pm

It was horrible beyond words. So many people were getting up and walking out, even though there was no intermission.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/18/08 at 12:49am

I just got back from the performance, and I have to say I agree with most of the "so what?" comments. It didn't really strike a cord in me at all. A lot of the character "flaws" or "quirks" just seemed so stale and used. The teenager who is struggling with sexuality, or the mom who wants everything to be perfect. It just seemed tired. I have to agree that all the performances were great, but the direction was a little unbalanced. I loved some of the design elements (the red neon line), but the use of the elevator lift seemed pointless. It was used twice, and not really needed the first time. At least, I didn't see the significance in the bedroom scene, did you? I was trying to find the parallel in the dialogue and the reason why the bedroom scene was going on, but I couldn't put it together.

Victoria Clark was hands down brilliant, and I don't like to throw that word around loosely. She just gave a stellar performance, and really had the audience captivated. The other performances were good, but nothing really moved me. I thought the girl playing the daughter had some great comedic chops, and just a really good sense of her character, even if it was such a slight character.

The coolest part of the night for me was thinking "This is where 'Sunday in the Park' got started..." Ha.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 12/18/08 at 1:01am

Saw the show this past Saturday and I agree with the so what? comment. But I certainly didn't think it was as horrible as some people have said, and not a single person got up and walked out in the middle of the show. I guess, for the entire show, I was waiting for the plot to start. And it never really did for me. I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen, and nothing did. Some elements were very interesting. The performances were great, and Victoria Clark blew me away.

Anyway, it was nothing special, but I liked it a lot more than Three Changes.

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 12/18/08 at 1:01am

Was it your first time at PH?

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 12/18/08 at 1:06am

Yeah, it was. I didn't realize there were two different theaters, but I suppose that makes sense given the amount of shows they put on. Is that the same theater that "Sunday..." played? It seemed so "modern" given the history of the building and the theater company.

And I agree about the plot. A good play should be able to tell you "this is where we're headed, come along" kind of thing, but I didn't get that from this. As an audience member you should be able to know where the play is headed, but it's the playwrights job to get us there in an interesting fashion. The same can be said for "Becky Shaw," which I saw last night. It didn't really seem to have a plot, so we were left with some funny scenes, but no common thread.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/18/08 at 12:36pm

A good play should tell you where its going??? Oh, please.

Michael Feingold's review in the Village Voice is a pan, but its the best review thus far. Lucas is not the playwright for you if you need to know "where a play is going":


It's clear now: The 21st century exists mainly to drive playwrights crazy. Playwriting, after all, involves finding the sense of things. A playwright struggles to cram a coherent vision of the world into the limited space of one theatrical evening. The more extravagantly disparate the world gets, the tougher the cramming job becomes. No wonder plays by intelligent writers increasingly look like overpacked suitcases, ready to burst open in transit. It's impossible for even the tidiest packer to be orderly with so many matters, of such varied shapes and sizes, demanding inclusion.

Craig Lucas's Prayer for My Enemy (Playwrights Horizons) seems to have exploded open before the journey even starts. Lucas has always had a somewhat combative relationship with dramatic form, like a guy who hates packing so much he has to make a game of it to get it done. His fans go in expecting any baggage he carries to be full of hidden surprises. Prayer for My Enemy offers a whole trunkful, including a character who seems irrelevant to the action until it all turns out to be about her, and a system of inner thoughts spoken aloud that recalls O'Neill's Strange Interlude. He focuses on a family burdened with a roster of issues that could keep Oprah booked for the next decade, and one so fragilely bonded that calling them "dysfunctional" would seem a compliment. Nobody could accuse this playwright of skimping on his materials.

Whether he might have put them in better order is a different question. The combination of our wildly fragmented world and our theater's economic need for a tight dramaturgic focus poses a challenge to every playwright. Lucas, bravely independent-minded, makes it that much harder for himself: He's fascinated by contradiction. Perturbed about Iraq, he looks at why U.S. soldiers enlist and even re-enlist; concerned with gay identity, he explores what makes bisexuality and parenting appeal to men with same-sex leanings.

Though inherently dramatic, contradiction doesn't always merge readily with other elements. Oedipus freed Thebes from the Sphinx but, being who he was, brought a plague in its wake: contradiction. To compound matters by making Oedipus, say, a wife-beating substance abuser with pedophilic tendencies, would only clutter the narrative. In a sense, this is what Lucas does. The wounded soldier who hates the war but re-ups, from a mixture of honorable and murky motives, makes a fascinating and troubling figure by himself, needing only a strong story to move within. The elaborate environment Lucas builds around him—12-stepping bipolar father, passive-aggressive enabling mother, shaky rural family business, sister with conflicted sibling attitudes, autistic nephew (unseen), new brother-in-law bringing his own festoon of problems—supplies only a fascinating clutter of distractions. The central story, such as it is, turns out not to be the one we thought we were watching, and occurs only in the last few scenes. Even then, we're uncertain exactly why it occurred or how it connects thematically with everything else.

Lucas clearly loves these people; he didn't create them merely as distractions. They're thriving, perplexing parts of the world he's trying to capture. Prayer for My Enemy often turns, like his best plays, enthralling, passionate, and articulate. But it also often feels contradictory and unclarified as it jumps almost nervously from topic to topic. What drives the evening, more than anything said or done onstage, seems to be Lucas's struggle to find the connections that give life meaning. That his methods visibly aren't working only makes the effort more grippingly painful. While hopelessly inchoate, the play also at times seems only a breath away from being a masterpiece.

Bartlett Sher's production struggles in its own way, searching for a unified style in Lucas's exploding fragments. He never evolves a workable convention for the inner-voice speeches; too often, the actors—even artists as fine as Jonathan Groff and Victoria Clark—abruptly lurch into shouting in a void. Floating TV sets and other dislocated visual elements drift inexplicably across John McDermott's set. In this uncertain world, only Groff, steadfastly holding his character's contradictory ground, conveys a faith that something more certain lies within the script. It may take another production, or another decade, before the rest of us come to agree.