Regrets Only Reviews

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/19/06 at 11:12pm

NY Times is Mixed-to-Negative:

"Old acquaintance comes under siege in Paul Rudnick’s “Regrets Only,” a chiffon-thin play in which a married socialite and a gay fashion designer are forced to question their longtime relationship. Still, it’s unlikely that anyone who sees this comedy, which opened last night at the Manhattan Theater Club, is going to doubt that Christine Baranski is truly a one-liner’s best friend.

Granted, Mr. Rudnick, one of the funniest quip-meisters on the planet, gives Ms. Baranski plenty of precious gems to polish up and show off. But few performers could match her in the topspin she puts on Mr. Rudnick’s zingers, or in the illusion of depth she lends to his epigrams — an illusion that this play very much needs.
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Mr. Rudnick, who more deftly infused political firewater with dry wit in “Jeffrey” and “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,” fails to blend his mixed ingredients into a comparably smooth cocktail this time. Like Noël Coward, he makes a case for frivolity as an existential choice, for the necessity of laughter in transcending an often grim world.

But too often “Regrets Only” has the unconvincing air of someone yelling, “Save the geese!” while feasting on foie gras. And when people aren’t merely being witty, the play sags.

You can always sense the manipulative hands of Mr. Rudnick and Mr. Ashley in pushing Hank and the McCulloughs toward self-awareness. The characters never seem to come by their big moments of revelation honestly, and the sentimentality has the stickiness and perfunctoriness of a recently completed by-the-numbers oil painting."
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/theater/reviews/20regr.html?8dpc=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1163995490-Ae0ehY5hLGbKB0GyyaqLrw

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/19/06 at 11:16pm

Theatremania is Positive:

"The rap on Paul Rudnick has always been that, for all his genius as a writer of hilarious one-liners, he can't write a cogent play with a beginning, middle, and, most importantly, an ending. The promise of Jeffrey, his early, award-winning play, has been generally followed by brilliant comic high-concepts that didn't pay off -- such asThe Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, about the first two people on earth, Adam and Steve. But now that his new play, Regrets Only, has opened at Manhattan Theatre Club, Rudnick has finally graduated with full honors from gifted joke-writer to esteemed and still hilarious playwright.

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The play is a miraculous marriage (that word is used advisedly) of caricature and character. Rudnick has managed to create six comically extreme people -- including Myra, the McCullough's Jewish maid, played with a zest bordering on zeal by Jackie Hoffman, and Tibby's shallow mother, Marietta, played by Siân Phillips -- who also exhibit genuine human emotions. While the quips fly fast and furiously, Rudnick so effectively plots the piece that the jokes serve a thematic point. Tibby, who's essentially a silly society wife, is eventually given stature. Jack is humbled but not broken; rather, he is educated. Even Spencer and Marietta have their epiphanies.

Rudnick has written a smart play with a several rich conflicts waiting to explode. The only question for the audience is whether he will find a way to tie all of his points and plot strands together before the final blackout -- and the answer is a resounding yes. His major plot twist is no more realistic than his comically overdrawn characters, but that's the brilliance of the piece; the characters and the plot are in perfect balance.

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The show's design elements -- gorgeous gowns by William Ivey Long, a beautiful apartment by Michael Yeargan, and evocative lighting by Natasha Katz -- combine to lift Rudnick's play to a level of real artfulness. Regrets Only signals Rudnick's emergence as a serious writer of comedy.


http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/9495

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/19/06 at 11:18pm

If I remember correctly (and I do have an age-induced addled memory these days), you liked this play, didn't you, Margo?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/19/06 at 11:21pm

The AP is Mixed:

"Comedy is hard, but it should look effortless, even easy.

"Regrets Only" doesn't. In fact, there's a labored, patchwork quality to Paul Rudnick's uneven new play on view at off-Broadway's Manhattan Theatre Club Stage I.

The evening, despite the work of such expert actors as Christine Baranski, George Grizzard, David Rasche, Sian Phillips and Jackie Hoffman, suffers from a stop-and-go script that lurches from joke to joke. Some of them admittedly are quite funny as the play dissects the world of New York's upper crust and the folks who make them beautiful.

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Rudnick is a master quipster. He throws out hilarious one-liners with the speed of an ace pitcher. And this cast can bat them out of the ballpark.

So it's weird to think of something or someone supplying even more comic diversion in a Rudnick laugh fest. But that job has been assigned to Hoffman, who plays Myra, "the only white, Jewish maid in Manhattan." Myra is a woman so bored by her job that she changes her costume and accent _ Irish, German, French, etc. _ every time she makes a very conspicuous entrance.

As giddy as the moments are, they detract from the play, making it seem more scattered than it already is. And "Regrets Only" needs all the focus Rudnick and company can muster."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/19/AR2006111900562.html

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/19/06 at 11:26pm

I thought it was a rather superficial, but very funny light comedy.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:36am

Brantly certainly liked Ms. Biranski if nothing else. He's right though, the deadpan one-liners are quite funny and worth seeing the show for...definitly enjoyable theatre.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:37am

"Superficial" can be okay, as long as it's funny!

Anyway, these reviews don't seem as bad as Losing Louie.

[ByMySide25]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 12:52am

I've found most of Rudnick's work to be superficial. In & Out comes to mind...

[IssaMe]

Posted: 11/20/06 at 8:10am

Several major producers have already passed on this for a Broadway transfer - finding it too superficial and slight.