THE HOMECOMING Reviews

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 7:06pm

Mixed from Talkin' Broadway, with very kind words about Eve Best.

"It’s much harder for a sunbeam to pierce a dimly lit room than a pitch-black abyss. That there’s enough illumination to see particles of dust floating about the air onstage at the Cort, where the new revival of The Homecoming just opened under Daniel Sullivan’s direction, is not a good sign for a play that thrives on absence. Yet the presence of one performer in this spotty production of Harold Pinter’s masterwork is almost enough to conquer the ambient light that threatens to suffocate the not-quite-encroaching gloom.

That would be Eve Best. The star of last season’s revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten is put to even better use here, as... Well, as always, there’s some question to that. Is Best’s character, named Ruth, really who she claims to be: The wife of a British philosopher living and teaching in America, who’s returned to Britain after nine years to introduce her to his brothers, father, and uncle? Is she a whore whose put-on airs can’t fool the coarse men who know the type all too well? Or is she a mother-in-waiting merely biding her time until she finds a family who needs her more than her husband and three children do?"

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/Homecoming2007.html

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 7:09pm

Associated Press is positive, though not great for Esparza.

Pinter dissects a combative family

By MICHAEL KUCHWARA
AP Drama Critic

NEW YORK—Just in time for the holidays comes another bilious family reunion: a revival of "The Homecoming," Harold Pinter's masterful, acid-etched portrait of a tyrannical father and his three sons, undone by a savvy, sexually aware woman.

Now well into middle age, the play (first seen on Broadway in 1967) remains one of Pinter's most durable works, and this admirable production, which opened Sunday at the Cort Theatre, reconfirms its status as a contemporary classic.

Directed by Daniel Sullivan with careful attention to detail (particularly to all those celebrated Pinter "pauses" or moments of silence), "The Homecoming" is, among other things, an eerie, uncomfortable examination of male combativeness, a fraternity of one-upmanship that finally meets its match in the appearance of a female outsider.

But like most Pinter creations, "The Homecoming" defies easy analysis. The play keeps its audience off-kilter, reveling in a sinister yet often humorous uncertainty that persists through its still shocking conclusion.



AP - The Homecoming

Updated On: 12/16/07 at 07:09 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 7:13pm

Wow, I kind of thought Murray would hate it. Since, you know, he's Matthew Murray.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 8:09pm

Variety is Positive:

"Cole Porter was wrong. Then again, he wasn't thinking of Harold Pinter when he observed in "Anything Goes" that what was once considered shocking could be softened into innocuousness by the passing of a few decades. In "The Homecoming," his enigmatic 1965 masterwork about power and desire, Pinter aimed to leave his audience unsure, unsettled, stimulated and appalled. That result is undimmed in Daniel Sullivan's diamond-edged Broadway revival. The director's lucid, unblinking work is matched by a riveting ensemble, their vileness inching under the skin in ways as psychologically disturbing as they are theatrically bracing.

Sullivan steers away from the trap of over-interpreting Pinter. This is a cryptic play in which every chiseled line is loaded and every sculpted silence even more so. But its capacity to mesmerize lies in its mystery. We watch the characters unleash unspeakable emotional violence upon each other, their mean-spirited, manipulative behavior rooted in histories and pathologies made all the more unnerving by being merely suggested. But even while withholding a full understanding of what drives the characters' actions, the play confronts its audience with the uncomfortable truth that there's a little of their base, animalistic cunning in all of us."


http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935658.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

Updated On: 12/16/07 at 08:09 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 9:02pm

Theatremania is Mixed:

"That requisite state of anxiety simply doesn't prevail under Sullivan's hand. Even though he's working with a cast of intelligent and emotive actors, the audience is too often allowed to relax. There are moments when sexual and sinister undercurrents tremble and threaten, such as the aforementioned sequence when Best -- whose long face resembles pale porcelain - -talks about how she moves her legs and then demonstrates. When McShane swings his cane as if it's a metronome gone haywire, a scary thrill whips the air; but the terror he exuded consistently in HBO's Deadwood is diluted here. Of the rest of the cast, Esparza's chillingly contained delivery as the knows-more-than-he's-saying Lenny also has its intermittent effect, and Saxe's uncertain Joey almost always works. Frain has a hold on some of Teddy's self-satisfaction but misses the stuffiness of a tenured pedant. The closest-to-perfect performance is given by McKean as the well-meaning, baffled Sam.

Incidentally, the actors -- with Liz Smith as dialect coach -- speak in an array of English accents. Evidently, the idea is to evoke the various social strata to which they've progressed rather than the shared stratum into which they were born. But like much else on stage, the concept ends up contributing to a less-than-perfect production."

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/12305

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 9:40pm

On another thread I said how much I really liked McKean's performance. Eve best pretty much blew me away. She was wonderful. Esparza just seemed a bit inconsistant and he did spit his lines out rather quickly. He could have been a bit more sly and sinister. And as I mentioned in another thread also, the sound was really weird.

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 9:54pm

USA Today:
'The Homecoming' is a dysfunctional family affair

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 9:56pm

USA Today gives it Three-and-a-half Stars:

"Forty years after Homecoming made its Broadway bow, the twisted family ties binding the play remain as luridly fascinating as anything you'll see on cable television. In fact, the spiffy new revival (* * * ½out of four) that opened Sunday at the Cort Theatre stars Ian McShane, recently of HBO's Deadwood, as Max, patriarch of the clan that Ruth marries into......

........McShane is excellent as Max, who wields a cane and a brutal tongue to compensate for his declining virility. But it would be unfair to single him out; this production is a credit to the whole company, which under Daniel Sullivan's shrewd direction adds to what has been a banner season for ensemble acting on Broadway. "
http://www.usatoday.com/life/theater/reviews/2007-12-16-homecoming_N.htm

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 9:59pm

The Newark Star-Ledger is Positive:

"Just in time for the holiday season of happy reunions comes a revival of British master Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming," an edgy, smoldering drama about a nasty London family.

"The Homecoming" won the Tony Award for outstanding play when it bowed here in 1967 and subsequently enjoyed a 10-month run.

The production that opened yesterday at the Cort Theatre is strongly acted under Daniel Sullivan's direction, but one wonders whether Pinter's enigmatic play will fascinate a Broadway audience of today as it evidently did 40 years ago.

For all of its brooding effectiveness, "The Homecoming" is not an easy work to digest and tends to leave a sour taste.......

....... The ability to enjoy Pinter's subtle plays is strictly an acquired taste -- not everyone has it -- but this ably staged production of "The Homecoming" offers aficionados a solid rendition of one of his best-known works."



http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2007/12/homecomings_always_tricky.html

Updated On: 12/16/07 at 09:59 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:04pm

It's so funny that one review blames all the problems of the production on Sullivan, and the one right after praises it for "Sullivan's shrewd direction." I love this fascinating nature of reviews.
Wonder what the big girl above on the NY Times will say about it. Overall seems like McShane just became a strong competitor for a Tony nod (I love that we can only talk about Tony nods and not locks for the award in this great year of plays on Broadway).

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:04pm

I walked out a wee bit confused but as I started walking it all just kind of washed over me and I was just like, "wow"!

[keen on kean]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:05pm

I was still thinking about the preview performance I saw days later!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:06pm

I think Brantley likes the play, at least. But I do wonder what he'll have to say.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:10pm

Brantley calls it "first rate".
Homecoming review - NY Times

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:11pm

I am still thinking about it keen and just got off of the phone with the friend I stay with in NYC and we were talking about it. it sticks with you. It was my first Pinter play and I loved it.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:21pm

It was my first Pinter play, too. I was afraid that I would be so put off by it that I would want to shower it off. But the characters are so intriguing. I'll be going back soon.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:27pm

Wow, that's one heck of a "money review" from Brantley. Good for them -- I'm sure everyone involved in this production must be ecstatic.

Updated On: 12/16/07 at 10:27 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:29pm

It wasn't high on my list while I was there. There were 3 shows I had to see and it wasn't on the list of that show I was just going to grab a discount ticket for on Saturday afternoon. But my friend got comps and I thought, why not? There was buzz about it, Raul was in it and it was Pinter. I thought, why give up the chance to see my 1st Pinter play. (A matinee, a Pinter play!) I HAD to go!! And glad I did!

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:30pm

Wow, Brantley's review sure does stick out like a sore thumb.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:33pm

How does it stick out like a sore thumb? Variety, USA Today and the AP were also quite positive.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:33pm

It's my first Pinter play. I plan to go back and see it again definitely. Eve Best is amazing in her subtlety. :)

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:33pm

That's some review.

[misschung]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:35pm

I didn't quite know what to expect from the Times, but I'm surprised at such a glowing review.

Congratulations to the cast!

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:37pm

Sounds like some good acting.

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:45pm

I just found his praise (of Esparza especially) to be a tad overwhelming in comparison to the other reviews, which were much more on point with what I saw from him. And I don't think Esparza and Best's performances should be placed on the same level, but that's just my opinion.

Updated On: 12/16/07 at 10:45 PM