THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#2re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 5:06am
I posted this on BusterPhantom's original board...but here it is again:
(This is from my blog...sorry for the formality)
On the whole, I liked and was horrified at this story. A trouble young lady (Lily Rabe), her overbearing, manipulative mother (Mercedes Ruhl) and the man that stumbles into their lives. I thought the performances were amazing. I was intrigued, and yet, I walked out of the theater totally unsatisfied.
I talked to a suprising number of people about it. Waiting to cross 46th street to meet a friend, two others were talking about it and we struck up a nice conversation for a few blocks. I wanted more. Maybe 5 minutes more. But I still don't WHAT more I wanted.
Sitting and having a drink even the WAITER wanted to talk about it. This is the best part of NY theater...just talking theater with strangers. LOVE it. And the waiter agreed with me. (Then I talked him into seeing Becky Shaw.)
BTW: Never understimate the kindness of strangers. I had purchased my ticket for this with a discount code. I was in the second to last row of the balcony, but determined to make the best of it. I had struck up a conversation with a lovely older couple from Jersey (we find each other out quickly). Then, only minutes before curtain, the gentleman that just sat down behind us interrupts us, politely. Did we want to move to the orchestra? He had some extra tickets and would we like them? He apologized because they were all single seats...none together. Um...I don't KNOW these people: hell yes...I'll take an upgrade any time! They were "comp" tickets and I don't know who the man was...but THANK YOU! I'm sure the view was gads better in the orchestra then the rear Mezz.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
Updated On: 1/22/09 at 05:06 AM
#2re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 6:16pm
The Associated Press is VERY POSITIVE:
"The chatter goes on too long, but director David Grindley manages to minimize the aimlessness. He gives the evening a stylish sense of movement with a series of swirling curtains that divide the scenes. Most of them are played out on designer Jonathan Fensom's atmospheric woodsy setting with a pier jutting into the lake.
Another plus: The production is fortunate to have Lily Rabe playing the daughter. This lovely actress exudes an appealing vulnerability even when Lily is being her most obstinate. And Lily is a willful young woman, in a way just as controlling in a passive-aggressive way as her formidable mother."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090122/ap_en_re/theater_review_american_plan;_ylt=AjZ6XU7BdKfZSQoB8ppFtxE9FRkF
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#3re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 7:05pm
NY1 [with video] is MIXED-TO-NEGATIVE:
"It's fine to raise questions, but Greenberg's script is too ambiguous for its own good. The characters, who sound more like mouthpieces for the author, ring false.
The performances, however - the two leads in particular - couldn't be more honest. Lily Rabe is once again acing a difficult role, turning the hyper-intelligent Lili into an endearing neurotic, and Mercedes Ruehl is simply astonishing, using impeccable technique to make the intimidating, old world Eva all too real. You can practically smell her overpowering perfume."
http://www.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/92680/ny1-theater-review---the-american-plan-/Default.aspx
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#4re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 7:28pm
The Wall Street Journal is A PAN:
"Richard Greenberg is back on Broadway yet again, this time with a revival of "The American Plan," the 1990 play that put him on the map. It is, like all his other plays, repellently glib, and seeing it in tandem with "Six Degrees of Separation" also suggests that it is . . . oh, let's be nice and call it derivative. Like "Six Degrees," "The American Plan" is a snapshot of upper-middle-class life that hinges on the deceptions of a presentable young man who turns out to be (A) poor and (B) gay. In "The American Plan," the young man in question (Kieran Campion) is courting a rich girl (Lily Rabe) who is brainy but neurotic, and the air becomes clotted with pseudo-witty one-liners. Enter the Evil Mother (Mercedes Ruehl), followed by the young man's former lover (Austin Lysy). Emotionally fraught hijinks à la Douglas Sirk ensue. What else is new? Nothing whatsoever."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123266418352107699.html
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#5re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 7:43pm
USA Today gives the show 3 1/2 STARS OUT OF 4:
"Ruehl brings great style and compassion to Eva. But the real star of this production is Rabe, who continues to blossom into one of the most beguiling stage actresses of her generation.
When she lowers her voice, you can hear traces of Rabe's mother, Jill Clayburgh; at other times, her Lili is a wounded animal. Rabe reveals the tortured sensuality beneath Lili's tender exterior — and, more sadly, how that exterior hardens."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2009-01-22-american-plan_N.htm
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#6re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 8:07pm
Variety is POSITIVE:
"Greenberg modeled his characters on the central triangle from Henry James' "Washington Square" and its theatrical adaptation "The Heiress," relocating the tragicomedy to the Catskills in summer 1960. Employing a subtlety and perspicacity -- not to mention a conversational formality -- that could fairly be described as Jamesian, a rich sprinkling of clever aphorisms and a tart social commentary that recalls Jane Austen, Greenberg brings feather-light brush strokes to what's essentially a somber work.
If the play's themes don't crystallize as swiftly or satisfyingly as they should, it's nonetheless an absorbing reflection on relationships carved out of disappointment and resignation in an era immediately before nonconformity became a more available option."
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939437.html?categoryid=33&cs=1
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#7re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 10:16pm
Backstage is VERY POSITIVE:
"My first reaction to the news of Manhattan Theatre Club's revival of Richard Greenberg's 1990 "The American Plan" was "Why?" I recalled the original MTC production as a contrived melodrama peopled with cultural clichés: the domineering mother, the sheltered daughter, the closeted homosexual. It was a cross between The Glass Menagerie and Tea and Sympathy enlivened only by Joan Copeland's subtle limning of the mother. Well, either I didn't fully appreciate Greenberg's vision or this production's director, David Grindley, has dug deeper into the play's depths. This new Plan is a stronger, more insightful one."
http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003933740
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#8re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 10:19pm
The New York Times [with Ben Brantley reviewing] is A RAVE:
"A playwright of steady and ambitious output, Mr. Greenberg has established himself as a specialist in the lives of the fearful. (His play “The Dazzle,” produced in 2002, was about those ultimate shut-ins the Collyer brothers.) And he never presents fear as merely an individual trait, but as the product, at least in part, of societal shaping. It is significant that “The American Plan” is set in 1960, at the juncture of two decades with very different historical associations.
For in its look and surface sensibility, “The American Plan” suggests the quintessential 1950s Broadway play. The whimsical, eccentric, fantasy-prone young heroine; the handsome drifter who wanders into her life; the music of yearning that seems to hum in everyone’s mind: such elements, typical of a work by, say, William Inge, are conspicuously in evidence here.
But Mr. Greenberg brings sharp but compassionate hindsight to the era that places it in the context of its immediate past and future: of the anxious aftermath of World War II — and the propriety of the prosperity that succeeded it — and the heady freedom of the 1960s. (The play’s final scene takes place in 1970, with the noise of student protesters in the background.) The suspense of “The American Plan” derives from our wondering whether Lili and Nick will catch, as it were, the last boat out of the 1950s."
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/theater/reviews/23plan.html
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
Updated On: 1/22/09 at 10:19 PM
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#9re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 10:52pm
AM New York gives the show 2 1/2 STARS OUT OF 4:
"In our opinion, there are far too many great American playwrights whose work is overlooked to justify the lavish treatment thrown upon Richard Greenberg by New York’s major not-for-profit theaters. But “The American Plan,” in spite of its thin plot and problematic second half, is one of Greenberg’s most sincere plays, especially in its delicate exploration of personal identity.
With an empty set that consists of little more than a boat dock, David Grindley’s quiet, intimate production benefits from an excellent five-actor ensemble led by Mercedes Ruehl as mother Eva and Lily Rabe as daughter Lily."
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/stage/blog/2009/01/theater_review_of_the_american.html
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#10re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/22/09 at 11:06pm
John Simon is VERY NEGATIVE:
"Although David Grindley’s direction is generally proficient (he wisely eliminated the awkward hammock called for in the script), the performances are uneven. Kieran Campion and Austin Lysy are convincing as the two-faced youths -- and nicely contrasted dark and fair. Brenda Pressley is an effectively laid- back Olivia. But as Eva, the usually excellent Ruehl overacts, sometimes even flirting with the audience. As Lili, Rabe (daughter of playwright David and actress Jill Clayburgh) ratchets undesirability several notches higher than the part requires.
Jonathan Fensom’s scenery, though functional, may not even be the best that can be inexpensively had; his Central Park West apartment with two lined-up chandeliers in one room is particularly unpersuasive.
So why is “The American Plan” revived when far more deserving plays are not? Because preciosity all too easily passes for perception and weirdness is readily mistaken for originality."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601098&sid=arcsX6S23Evw&refer=movie
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#11re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/23/09 at 12:39amWow. What a great review from the Times.
Vespertine1228
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/30/05
#12re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/23/09 at 12:48amSaw the show tonight and thought it was terrific. Hopefully it'll be full for its limited run and they won't have to paper to high heaven like they did with the previous show in that theatre, which shall not be named.
#13re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/23/09 at 2:28amIn my opinion, Brantley's review is spot on. I thought it was exquisite.
#14re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/23/09 at 9:34am
The Bergen Record is MIXED:
"The Manhattan Theatre Club first presented Richard Greenberg's "The American Plan" 19 years ago. Its revival of the play, which opened Thursday night at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, is a much more compelling production.
What hasn't changed is the play itself; it isn't any more persuasive than it was before. Greenberg, who went on to write "Three Days of Rain" and "Take Me Out," has a provocative premise, but it's undercut by characters who are rather hard to swallow."
http://www.northjersey.com/entertainment/stage/38204524.html
The New York Daily News gives the show 3 STARS OUT OF 5:
"David Grindley (“Journey’s End”) directs for Manhattan Theatre Club, which mounted the play Off-Broadway in 1990. His staging is straightforward and clear, but repetitive. After each scene, the dock rotates behind a sweeping curtain. The constant “here we spin again” gets dull.
The performances, fortunately, never do. Campion, Pressley and a particularly fine Lysy bring nuance to their roles. In presence and performance, Tony- and Oscar-winner Ruehl is big and bold (that goes double for her accent) as Eva, whose skepticism is systemic. She believes what she’s told Lili since her infancy: "Happiness ... is for other people...""
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2009/01/23/2009-01-23_the_american_plan_not_the_bestlaid_but_c.html
The New York Post [with Barbara Hoffman reviewing] gives the show 2 1/2 STARS OUT OF 4:
"Ruehl, one of our great stage actresses, makes Eva a force of nature. But even as she gleefully extols the excesses across the lake ("a steak the size and shape of a jackboot"), she's constrained by an ungainly German accent.
It's like seeing a beautiful woman who's been zipped into a fat suit and can't get out. You wish someone had sprung for a dialog coach."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01232009/entertainment/theater/lakes_anything_but_placid_151397.htm
The New Yorker is A RAVE:
"As Ruehl wittily plays her, with frowsy black bangs and lips set in a sardonic straight line, Eva is a canny monster, a funny, selfish force of nature. From her opening riff, it’s clear that she talks at people, rather than with them. She enjoys performing her superiority; she turns Lili and Olivia into sounding boards and sidekicks. Her displays of infantilizing care and her seductive self-centeredness are as confounding to her child as they are to the audience."
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2009/02/02/090202crth_theatre_lahr
Newsday is MIXED-TO-POSITIVE:
"Watching "The American Plan" is a bit like reading a mysterious short story about people you don't quite believe, though you still need to know what happens to them. The Manhattan Theatre Club first produced Richard Greenberg's character study Off-Broadway in 1990, and has revived it in the company's Broadway venue as a vehicle for the compulsively watchable Mercedes Ruehl and Lily Rabe."
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/exploreli/ny-etlede6007530jan23,0,6998643.story
Time Out New York gives the show 4 STARS OUT OF 6:
"People in Richard Greenberg plays tend to be rather unfinished. Not that the prolific author shirks duty, it’s just that his characters lead contingent, aspirational lives—and they’re eloquently aware of it, too. They ache to reinvent themselves, transcend their family heritage or even (in the case of The Violet Hour) their historical destinies. Greenberg has a great ability to create keenly self-conscious, mercurial talking heads. The downside is that his fictional figures are often more intelligent than the actors who have to play them.
Happily, such is not the case with young, oft-cast Lily Rabe, whose pedigree (she’s the daughter of writer David Rabe and actor Jill Clayburgh) is becoming less significant than her talent..."
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/theater/70934/the-american-plan
The Village Voice is VERY POSITIVE:
"Naturally, Greenberg has learned from his enshrined predecessor, as well as from Chekhov's contemporaries, particularly Henry James—like Chekhov, a great notator of futile loves and unspoken sorrows. Greenberg's 1990 play, The American Plan, newly revived as part of Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway season at the Friedman Theatre, filters the sensibilities of both Chekhov and James through the patterns of 1940s and '50s Broadway drama, which enshrined both in a distorted, oversimplified form. Greenberg, subtly, subverts the pattern, setting his story in the late 1950s but pulling the period's oversimplifications back toward Chekhovian ambiguity."
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-01-28/theater/in-bam-s-cherry-orchard-and-mtc-s-american-plan-mixed-emotions-produce-mixed-results/
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
Updated On: 1/29/09 at 09:34 AM
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#15re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/23/09 at 9:40am
REVIEW ROUNDUP
New York Times
New Yorker
RAVE
Associated Press
Backstage
USA Today
Village Voice
VERY POSITIVE
Time Out New York
Variety
POSITIVE
AM New York
New York Daily News
Newsday
MIXED-TO-POSITIVE
Bergen Record
New York Post
MIXED
NY1
MIXED-TO-NEGATIVE
John Simon
VERY NEGATIVE
Wall Street Journal
PAN
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
Updated On: 1/29/09 at 09:40 AM
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#16re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/23/09 at 10:23am
How bizarre. The Wall Street Journal really sounds like his mind was made up before entering the theatre. He makes a point to say he doesn't like anything by Greenberg.
I love seeing all the positive reviews. I have always wanted to see a production of this play. I fell in love with the script years ago when I was studying at Circle in the Square.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
MrMidwest
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/8/05
#17re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/23/09 at 10:43amThanks for posting the reviews, Bustopher.
"The gods who nurse this universe think little of mortals' cares. They sit in crowds on exclusive clouds and laugh at our love affairs. I might have had a real romance if they'd given me a chance. I loved him, but he didn't love me. I wanted him, but he didn't want me. Then the gods had a spree and indulged in another whim. Now he loves me, but I don't love him." - Cole Porter
#18re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 1/31/09 at 10:30pm
That Wall Street Journal critic should be FIRED.
I saw the show last night, and if I had read his review before seeing it, I would have been PISSED, as he gives away the MAJOR plot twist that doesn't even come until Act II.
It's his business if he wants to give it a negative review (I personally thought it was brilliant, and agree with every word of Brantley's review), but no critic should give away plot twists whether they like the show or not.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#19re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 2/1/09 at 1:31pmI thought it was awful, so I'm kind of shocked to see the reviews. I mean, honestly, at the end of the two hours, what is the point? Even the set got to be repetitive and annoying after awhile. I thought the acting was suburb, but the story was just borderline boring and uneventful. Even the big twist felt like it was thrown in to try and reel the audience back in, but too little too late.
#20re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 2/1/09 at 2:36pm
In Terry Teachout's defense, the Wall Street Journal isn't exactly Theater Criticism Central.
A paper like the New York Times can afford to hire a second- and third-tier critic to not only cover less-buzzed openings, but also to cover writers that the main critic does not like, and can't bring himself to like.
And, at a time when newspapers across the country are laying-off most of their staff (Jacques le Sourd, Michael Sommers, and Eric Grode have already lost their regular jobs), Mr. Teachout should count himself lucky that he's still working at all.
PS. Also, the purpose of a "circle of critics" is to encourage arguments like these. Why shouldn't Mr. Teachout hate Richard Greenberg's plays? Why shouldn't he hate BILLY ELLIOT? Someone's got to.
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#21re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 2/2/09 at 8:19amHe has every right to hate Mr. Greenberg's plays. He has NO RIGHT to give away major plot points to readers who may choose to see the show. It's his job to review. Not to ruin. The readers should be able to read his review and at that point decide whether or not they choose to buy a ticket. When he gives away major plot twists, he has basically ruined the evening for any prospective ticket buyers.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
#22re: THE AMERICAN PLAN Reviews
Posted: 2/2/09 at 10:47am
Why shouldn't Mr. Teachout hate Richard Greenberg's plays?
He can hate whatever he wants, but it does make his review sound less objective and more like he made up his mind before entering the theatre. The review reads as if there is an undertone of jealousy.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
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