THE LYONS Reviews

The AP is positive:

"Nothing beats Rita’s final speech, and Lavin rips into it with gusto.

“I am rootless in the world,” she says. “I’m still alive and I have to find a way to try to feel something!” You can tell it was a major reason this busy actress chose to commit to this play instead of other Broadway-bound options.

But the real star is Silver’s play, a wonderful little riff on family dysfunction. Or, as Rita says while flipping through pictures of beautiful living rooms, “I suppose you never really know what people are like, behind closed doors.”"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/review-nicky-silvers-terrific-the-lyons-starring-linda-lavin-is-mordant-little-gem/2012/04/23/gIQAC3p5cT_story.html

The Hollywood Reporter is positive:

"Linda Lavin surprised theater pundits at the start of the season by turning down plum featured roles she had originated in not one but two productions transferring to Broadway, Other Desert Cities and Follies. Instead, she opted to do Nicky Silver’s corrosive comedy The Lyons at Off Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre. The tart yet unexpectedly compassionate slice of familial dysfunction has now moved uptown with its impeccable six-member ensemble intact, and Lavin’s exceptional performance as the brittle matriarch of this messed-up clan removes any doubt that she made the right choice."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/the-lyons-theater-review-315077

I used to believe the big competition for the Best Actress in a Play Tony Award was mostly between Tracie Bennett and Nina Arianda; but from the looks of things at this point, I'm now beginning to think the real contest might be between Arianda and Lavin.

Murray at Talkin' Broadway is mixed to positive, with a great review for Lavin.

"Rita Lyons may never win a Mother of the Year award, but for playing her Linda Lavin deserves some kind of prize. The scorching center of, and by far the best reason to see, Nicky Silver's comedy at the Cort, she refines and redefines the concept of self-concerned demon matrons into a portrait of sheer comic perfection as filtered through an age-old stereotype. Think you know everything possible about the endlessly kvetching Jewish mother? Think again."

"Rita is too gloriously, over-the-top theatrical for you to not believe, and indeed hang on, every word she says. Unfortunately, the same is not consistently true of the play that surrounds her. Despite game performances from the other actors and crisp direction from Mark Brokaw, The Lyons is considerably more star vehicle than story. Whenever the action shifts to one of the children, who supposedly embody everything Rita has grown to detest and must find some way to conduct the lives they've been ignoring for most of adulthood, the play sags and dogs."




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

Updated On: 4/23/12 at 09:19 PM

Brantley is very positive:

"At that time the consensus was that the second act was wobblier than the first. Besides, it had less of Ms. Lavin, whose blithely rendered bitterness seemed the best reason to see the show. But with a few cuts (including a standard-issue Alcoholics Anonymous testimony from Lisa) and tweaks, the second half now equals the first.

In fact, the play delivers a couple of late sucker punches that, while impressive enough in the original version, leave you reeling here. And while Ms. Lavin continues to reign supreme, the cast feels more balanced than it did before. Ms. Grant has securely found her feet as the haplessly competitive Lisa."

http://theater.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/theater/reviews/the-lyons-with-linda-lavin-at-the-cort-theater.html?ref=theater&gwh=B71C046F6594AEB79B6E21AAD6A8BAD6

thrilled to be reading these reviews...esp for Nicky Silver, Linda Lavin and Michael Esper...

This play continues to stay with me.

Well if Brantley is sleeping with Silver, so is the rest of the bunch. It's not like he was the only one to give the production a very positive review.

As aggregated Curtain Critic:
84 Overall
93 Cast
82 Script
80 Design
http://www.curtaincritic.com/Shows/THE_LYONS_REVIEWS-144.html