THE HOMECOMING Reviews- Page 2

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:46pm

A Letter to the Powers That Be at Broadwayworld.com:

Please make a clip video of this show. Please.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:47pm

Whoa.

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:49pm

Wow! I think he loved it!

[misschung]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 10:50pm

"restraint" so isn't the word I would choose to describe Raul's Lenny. Then again, I only saw the run-through, so maybe some things have changed in the last month.

Updated On: 12/16/07 at 10:50 PM

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 11:00pm

Whoa. That is quite....something, Brantley's review.

But....is it just me, or does his over-the-top rave seem a bit out of sync with what every other review has said?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 11:00pm

Damn. It's so rare to get a review from Brantley bursting at the seams with positivity. Fantastic for the cast, and all the better especially given the fact that the play is housed at The Cort. This review should absolutely encourage folks to head over there.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 11:02pm

Fantabulous,

I do agree with that. I also personally thought Best was by far the standout in this production and is the main reason it works so well, followed closely by McShane (whom like Brantley I thought was mostly terrific, if a little too robust and vigorous for a character who's supposed to be something of a neutered paper tiger at this advanced time of his life). I found Esparza too impish and not nearly menacing or genuinely threatening enough for the role. I mean his line readings and body languauge elicited entirely too much giggling and odd laughter throughout, which undercut the tension that's supposed to be there for the play to work as it ideally should. Lenny should scare audiences, not make them howl with laughter, which happened several times when I saw the play a few nights ago.

Thankfully, the other performances were much more on a par with Pinter's intentions and so overall the production worked quite well.

Updated On: 12/16/07 at 11:02 PM

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 11:13pm

I totally agree with what you said. It seems like his performance can be a lot more sinister and creepy if he were to just calm down a bit. Granted, I saw the run-through a few weeks ago, so for all I know his performance has changed (but most of the other reviews led me to believe his performance is for the most part the same).

Kuchwara's comment struck the most with what I felt about his performance...

"More problematic is Raul Esparza, whose rushed, high-pitched delivery often is at odds with the other actors in the production."

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 11:15pm

Agreed. (To both of you.)

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 11:17pm

Brantley appears to have added Esparza to his Murphy-Cerveris-Chenoweth list.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/16/07 at 11:19pm

Pretty much! I mean, good for him, but the review is a little, "hey guys, excuse me while I fall over myself."

[humbugfoto]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 1:31am

New York Sun: http://www.nysun.com/article/68184

[misschung]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 8:49am

He totally hit the nail on the head in his description of Raul, IMO

[jordangirl]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 11:48am

Which he misschung?

I agree with the others that Brantley was a little over the top with the effusive praise of Raul. While he has toned down a tad since the run through, he's still verging on overdoing it for me. I find Eve's subtlety far stronger as a whole.

[misschung]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 12:31pm

Eric Grode from the NY Sun:

Mr. Esparza employs a wheedling, almost adolescent speaking voice — very similar to one he used to campy effect in "Taboo." In fact, he grabs quick laughs on several occasions, severely limiting the potency of his later scenes. He has, perhaps consciously, decided to counter the conception of Lenny as a feral tough guy, offering instead a penny-ante man-child laboring to equal his father's malevolence. But this approach, while valid on the surface, saps a crucial Act I dialogue between Lenny and Ruth of nearly all its coiled menace.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 12:57pm

Daily News is Positive:

"Just in time for eggnog and carols, a little family depravity. Well, a lot, actually.

Forty years after its original Tony-winning run, "The Homecoming" by Harold Pinter is no longer so shocking. But its provocative nastiness and pitch-black humor remain intact in the lucid production at the Cort Theatre..."

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2007/12/17/2007-12-17_brutal_pinter_family_drama_is_bully_good.html

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 1:04pm

John Simon is Positive:

"Harold Pinter's 1965 hit, ``The Homecoming,' has been lovingly revived on Broadway with good direction, a fine cast and convincing production design. Though every prospect pleases, only the play is vile. It is widely considered the Nobel laureate's masterpiece; rather than as a drawback, its making no sense is perceived as a challenge..."

"Daniel Sullivan has directed as well as possible Ian McShane's creepily mercurial Max, James Frain's tantalizingly self-contradictory Teddy and Eva Best's trifle too studiedly paradoxical Ruth. Raul Esparza, remarkably diverse in leading- man roles, adds, as Lenny, frightening if somewhat overloud villainy to his repertoire. Michael McKean's Sam shuttles aptly between self-confidence and befuddlement and Gareth Saxe's Joey can be as dumbly apathetic as stupidly aggressive.

What to conclude? Harold Pinter, staggering back and forth between naturalism and absurdism, never settles down in either. Made homeless by ambiguity, he does his damnedest to drag us into the cold with him. Follow at your own risk."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aGzgEoIJ7J8E&refer=muse

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 1:37pm

Word of Mouth is Very Mixed:

All three seemed to have the "What did I just see?" response to it, although one person didn't seem to think it left you with anything to talk about.

http://www.broadway.com/gen/general.aspx?ci=558145

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 1:39pm

Man, I miss Audrey's Raul slurp fest from last year.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 1:55pm

God, so do I.

But that Raul clip was really weird:

"Give me the glass."

"No."

...

"I'll take it then."

"If you take the glass... I'll take you."

Updated On: 12/17/07 at 01:55 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 1:56pm

HAHAH, the guy is so uncomfortable when he talks bout Ruth's sexuality.

I miss Audrey too.

Obviously it left you with something to talk about if you ARE TALKING ABOUT IT. oy.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 8:17pm

Newsday is Very Positive:

"Don't let "The Homecoming" get lost in the post-strike tumble of pulse-racing new family dramas.

Yes, Harold Pinter's slippery demon of a power play is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its shattering Broadway premiere. But the scathing erotic mystery, which opened at the Cort Theatre last night in Daniel Sullivan's exquisitely wry production, feels at least as brash and twice as unsettling as any fresh vivisection of what our pious times call family values..."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-pinter5504527dec17,0,5604078.story

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 11:53pm

What's weird about that clip? His accent definitely sounds better than it did at the run-through, heh.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 12/17/07 at 11:57pm

It was weird for me because I've never heard that bit of dialog and it (god forbid) sounded a bit odd.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/18/07 at 12:01am

Oh. Well, it is an odd scene. I wasn't being defensive, I just didn't know what you meant.