THE RESERVOIR at Atlantic Theatre Co

I’m going tonight. I am also quite interested by the premise, even though I’m not a huge fan of Noah Galvin.

Mary Beth Peil and Chip Zien could be reading a takeout menu on stage and I’d be down for it.

Falsettolands said: "The Denver production was pretty dang great. Not sure I love the idea of Noah in this role."

I hated it and left at intermission because I found Noah so insufferable in the role.

iluvtheatertrash said:

I hated it and left at intermission because I found Noah so insufferable in the role."

I unfortunately stayed for Act 2 thinking he would improve.....

Nope.

That video on the Atlantic website makes the set design look like an episode of Zoom.

Updated On: 2/15/26 at 02:37 PM

I just got out and I echo the thumbs down chorus.

This was a play that said a LOT…without actually saying anything meaningful. It spends the first half of the play attempting to reconcile a gay man crashing out from alcoholism to the mental decline of his older relatives (padded with psychoblather and sitcom schtick) and, while there might have been potential in that thread of thought, it essentially abandons it by the end of the first act for a basic Lifetime movie of the week. The main character is already insufferable enough, but when you factor in Noah Galvin basically epiloguing for the latter half of Act II, it just because extremely dull.

Mary Beth Peil and Chip Zien are very much wasted here, basically being scenery until they are used to drive either a dramatic moment or a Borscht Belt-esque schtick. Zien’s character could’ve been cut entirely and saved us a good 20 minutes. The only time anyone on stage truly came alive was Caroline Aaron. She made a buffet out of pure scraps and she was the only person who made me laugh in earnest, even if she got mired a bit in the “sassy acidic grandma” schtick.

The whole play is about 30-40 minutes too long and relies on too many tropes to push it along. Audiences might find it charming, but I expect the critics to unload their kvetching en masse for this.

That said, I need an effing drink…

Updated On: 2/15/26 at 10:43 PM

ClydeBarrow said: "The set design was so ugly and multiple times the actors couldn't find the slit in the curtains to exit the stage. I wanted to stop having to look at it."

Yeah. What fresh hell was that set design? I wanna guess it has something to do with that water/fluid metaphor that the playwright was keen on shoving down our throats, but all I could think of was hospital curtains.

Also, see below re: Matthew Saldivar’s character.

I couldn't wait for intermission so I could look for a horse doctor to shoot this play and put it out of it's misery!

I had to settle for fleeing the building as fast as I could.

CoffeeBreak said: "Yeah, the play we saw this weekend was a college/juvenile first write. Was the director in the room for this? They approve THAT set and some of the lighting? The general storytelling? Not good.

the whole cast had potential yet they were not helped into anything. it felt without a strong enough writer or a guide to shepherd the play and cast. "

She was there last weekend. Seemed very community theatre for a director with that pedigree regionally.

ill speak up for this play.

i agree with much of the criticism here. it feels like a first draft. the set feels like one big hospital room from the jump. it turns on a central character that is not very likable, compounded by the fact that noah galvin isnt very likable, compounded again by the fact half the play is galvin subconscious ranting at us without any structure.

but i am surprised that the four grandparent characters are tossed aside by the critics in this thread. to each their own, but i thought all four of them were well developed, accessible and performed absolutely beautifully. mary beth piel plays the same character healthy and not, and her switch between the two is masterful. she also sings, considerably and magnificently. so does chip zien, who is sharp and then not when he needs to be. his big scene in act 2 brought me to tears.

and caroline aaron brought the whole room to tears- a little manipulative work by the playwright, but shes WAY more than her usual shtick (which she does to perfection for most of the show). its frustrating that these characters/vignettes are so poorly held together by a premature script but i could not help but enjoy what i saw tonight.

glad i went. imperfect is sometimes still worthwhile.

The scenic designer is the same from Geffen to Atlantic. Somehow it's worse. Not sure how this has been produced by larger respected theaters with this writing and a director incapable.

Unfortunately, this was a major disappointment. The writing felt amateurish, the stereotypes were tired, and the overall look and tone seemed dated and uninspired. I had high expectations given the talented supporting cast, but even they couldn’t elevate what ultimately turned out to be a dud.

I suppose my expectations were tempered by this thread, but I found it really wonderful and came out quite affected by it. I had first encountered Noah Galvin from his Real O'Neals days and then kind of written him off when he got caught up in the meme-ification of Ben Platt and DEH and all, but I found him quite appealing here and with a good sense of stage presence. This play overall feels very millennial to me, both in Galvin's character and many of the jokes being made, and maybe that's part of why I enjoyed it so much. I can see how there are tropes, but at its core I found it a really engaging story about a young man who's at odds with himself and the world and how he can learn to accept things as they are. And of course the grandparents are all wonderful in their own ways (though I do wish Chip Zien was given a bit more to do)--it was also amazing to hear how good Mary Beth Peil's singing voice still is.

My one major gripe with the play is it makes it sound like Alzheimer's is an inevitability for everyone, which I don't think is true? But I thought the different reactions to it from denial to prevention to acceptance created a moving progression. I wish we got to see more of the mom character as well and how she's dealing with both her child and her parent slipping away; she gets a tremendous speech and then seems to immediately lose any characterization she had gained over the show (though I liked the actress quite a lot as the fitness instructor too).

In many ways the show reminded me of both Caroline and We Had a World, both dealing with difficult relationships between parents and children, with addiction, and with moving on. Despite everyone else's opinions on this thread, I found it to be one of the best offerings Atlantic has had in the past few years.