THE FERRYMAN Reviews — Page 2

Saw this tonight. My feelings about the play itself are mixed for reasons I can’t quite place my finger on. For some reason I didn’t find the ending the satisfying payoff I needed. It’s interesting because of all the 7 shows I was going to see this week especially the 5 new ones, this was the one I was the most excited for and felt like totally would exceed my expectations. So the fact that it slightly underwhelmed me is disappointing. I certainly didn’t hate it. And I appreciate it and think it will almost certainly win the Tony for best new play unless the traditionalists don’t prohibit to kill a mockingbird from winning. Of course, I haven’t seen that yet. Laura Donnelly in particular impresses me.

Like I said, I didn’t hate it as evidenced by the fact that I bought a magnet and mug. I also bought the script as some of the accents made some of the dialogue impossible to decipher. I hope I wake up appreciating it more than I do right now.

Regarding stage dooring, it has such depressing ending it felt kind of weird to stage door. And most plays don’t have massive stage doors anyway. So the cast didn’t seem like they were super psyched about stage dooring. I also think West End actors don’t feel as comfortable with the stage door experience as it’s not as much of a thing over there. and they really didn’t have it set up for that so I didn’t feel like being super assertive and asking so I didn’t do it. I just left.

It’s also possible that my mood about the play is impacted by voicemail I received during the intermission. My mom had a seizure tonight. She has epilepsy and they have been lowering her seizure meds in hopes that she won’t be so lethargic (which was also increasing her confusion accompanied by her dementia) and apparently they’ve lowered them too low so they have been increased again. So not the end of the world, but it’s always frustrating when she has health struggles when I’m so far away. Even though there’s nothing I can do if I was there

On humorous note, on my way to The Ferryman, a young woman ran up to a man on sidewalk next to me and said “My friend and I don’t know your name, but are you a famous actor?” He said rather humbly, “yes, my name is Dylan.” It was Dylan McDermott. She then ran off. By the way, he is even more smoking hot in person.

The ending to me was just exhilarating. I haven't left a theatre in a high like that in such a long time.

I am also not sure how I feel about the matriarch with the dementia as written. The actress certainly acts it very well. But as my mom has dementia, I found it implausible that she would go from a comatose state to being quite lucid and talkative. Certainly people living with dementia do swing between different poles of lucidity, but not necessarily as swiftly or as drastically as portrayed here, especially in one scene. It felt like the playwright knew how he wanted the last 30 seconds of the play to end so it felt gimmicky. This in contrast to The Waverly Gallery which portrayed a matriarch’s decline into dementia with 100% credibility. That play remains in my top 10% of theatrical experiences ever. This, while commendable on many fronts, does not.

haterobics said: "Miles2Go2 said: "Certainly people living with dementia do swing between different poles of lucidity, but not necessarily as swiftly or as drastically as portrayed here"

Couldn't itbe said thatmost character arcs in most plays arehyper-accelerated versions of reality to compress time and advance plot?"

Well, one can say anything I suppose. Somehow this just didn’t work for me here.

theatretenor2 said: "Has anyone seen the new cast yet? I’ve got tickets for this in April and curious to know how this cast measures up to the original cast. Really looking forward to seeing BDJ."

I was there tonight. I did not see the previous cast, so I have nothing to compare. The performances were solid, and the show was great. Brian D’Arcy James and the children were standouts. I didn’t notice any hiccups aside from when the actor playing Muldoon spiked one of the lines of the actor playing Shane toward the end. The climax seemed to go off without a hitch.

Miles2Go2 said: "I am also not sure how I feel about the matriarch with the dementia as written. The actress certainly acts it very well. But as my mom has dementia, I found it implausible that she would go from a comatose state to being quite lucid and talkative. Certainly people living with dementia do swing between different poles of lucidity, but not necessarily as swiftly or as drastically as portrayed here, especially in one scene. It felt like the playwright knew how he wanted the last 30 seconds of the play to end so it felt gimmicky. This in contrast to The Waverly Gallery which portrayed a matriarch’s decline into dementia with 100% credibility. That play remains in my top 10% of theatrical experiences ever. This, while commendable on many fronts, does not."

The two plays are stylistically different.
Waverly Gallery is pure realism. The Ferryman has flourishes of magic realism.

Updated On: 2/20/19 at 10:57 PM

Miles2Go2 said: "I am also not sure how I feel about the matriarch with the dementia as written. The actress certainly acts it very well. But as my mom has dementia, I found it implausible that she would go from a comatose state to being quite lucid and talkative. Certainly people living with dementia do swing between different poles of lucidity, but not necessarily as swiftly or as drastically as portrayed here, especially in one scene. It felt like the playwright knew how he wanted the last 30 seconds of the play to end so it felt gimmicky. This in contrast to The Waverly Gallery which portrayed a matriarch’s decline into dementia with 100% credibility. That play remains in my top 10% of theatrical experiences ever. This, while commendable on many fronts, does not."

Can't agree w/you 2Miles.....she (Fionnula Flanagan) won the Olivier (Tony equivalent) award for this performance. She wasn't comatose. She could hear and understand but just doesn'trespond. When one of the children asked her what happened to Uncle Seamus, she responded, "he's in the ground," because she heard Quinn talking to the priest about it. A comatose person is generally unconscious.

I've had relatives w/dementia. They would zonk in and out much like this until a particular stimulus make them "wake" and be more aware.

Miles2go2 wrote in part, "So the cast didn’t seem like they were super psyched about stage dooring. I also think West End actors don’t feel as comfortable with the stage door experience as it’s not as much of a thing over there. and they really didn’t have it set up for that so I didn’t feel like being super assertive and asking so I didn’t do it. I just left. "

I got the original cast to sign my poster. When the Waverly play was running, security told me that the Ferryman show did not pay for a security set-up at the SD w/barriers. So when Waverly ended about 45 mins b4 FM, security set up the barriers for Waverly, but once all that Waverly cast was gone, security removed the barriers and went home. So the FM cast came out not knowing if this was a group waiting for them and folks waiting there weren't sure who the cast was. Three shows shared the SD ally: FM, Waverly, Phantom so it was chaos when Phantom and FM came out the same time. Several FM cast also went out the SD closer to Come From Away. (There are 2).

I went on a Sunday when neither Waverly or Phantom were playing, or at least not Phantom. Several of us got the cast who were happy to sign and chat. I went on the last day of the Irish/Brit cast performance and they all came out including the director. Everyone did selfies.

Sorry it didn't work for Miles. I used the headsets which made understanding the Irish accents easier. I bought the transcript to better understand the show. I was amazed how they got the incredible interaction of the players. I went back several times. Saw the Darcy cast once.

Preferred the Irish cast which had performed it for 2 years and its flawlessness showed. The Darcy cast kept falling out of their fake Irish accents. Even the performance was slightly different. With the Irish cast, the actor who plays Malone sat in the chair in the final scene while the same role with the Darcy cast has him standing thru the end. I wondered if it was a height difference between Malone and Darcy that caused the change.

Still think it is the best show to hit Broadway since the orig Ham. Hope it takes best play at Tonys.