THE SCOTTISH PLAY Reviews

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 6:28pm

Under the direction of Jack O'Brien, LCT presents the latest incarnation of THE SCOTTISH PLAY at the Beaumont. Opening TONIGHT. Post reviews here! :)

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 8:25pm

AM New York is a pan with one star.

Thanksgiving is still a week away, but Lincoln Center Theater is already serving up a giant turkey in the form of Jack O'Brien's bloated, poorly acted and strangely conceived production of "Macbeth" starring Ethan Hawke.

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/theater-review-macbeth-1-star-1.6476856

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 8:28pm

Chicago Tribune is mixed.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/sc-ent-1121-macbeth-broadway-review-20131121-19,0,2358843.column

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 8:31pm

Not looking good for this one, from everything I've already heard to these early reviews.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 8:32pm

Matthew Murray is mostly negative.

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

An epic, then, is reduced to nothing more than a second-rate Twilight Zone–style thriller, requiring the acting to fall to match. Hawke, generally a strong, confident, and masculine actor, parades through scenes as if literally neutered, delivering all his lines with a shambling lifelessness that confirms Macbeth's status as the nonentity the script does not seem to describe. Duff fares a bit better, deploying a crisp, haughty physicality and a supple voice that carry her further than Hawke, but because the Lady is ceded no control over her husband here, her character is likewise superfluous and absent of all the alternately ambitious and pathetic qualities on which the role is usually constructed.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 9:17pm

The Hollywood Reporter is a pan

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/macbeth-theater-review-658859

The dramatic temperature of one of Shakespeare's most violent and eventful plays remains tepid in this mishandled Broadway production.

Newsday is also a pan

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/macbeth-review-witches-outshine-ethan-hawke-1.6470795

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 9:19pm

The Associated Press is positive and will definitely give some nice pull quotes.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/review-hawke-broody-monarch-macbeth-20974301

[RW3]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 10:42pm

Ouch on most of these

[elphaba.scares.me]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 10:43pm

Ahem.

It is not called "The Scottish Play." It is called "Macbeth."

Especially since you are, presumably, typing on a keyboard rather than speaking aloud in a theater.

"The Scottish Play" is literally an entirely different play.

PET. PEEVE.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 10:48pm

Oops!!! Brantley's review is going to kill this. Condolences to everyone involved.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 11:04pm

NY Times

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 11/21/13 at 11:33pm

"It is not called "The Scottish Play." It is called "Macbeth."

Especially since you are, presumably, typing on a keyboard rather than speaking aloud in a theater. "

Thank you! I can (marginally) understand the concept when said in a theater...but come on, online???

[Patash]

Posted: 11/22/13 at 8:28am

Well clearly, with this particular production somebody must have accidentally spoken the title aloud in the theatre.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/22/13 at 8:57am

MacBeth Macbeth MACBETH

[SNAFU]

Posted: 11/22/13 at 9:15am

Now you've done it!

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 11/23/13 at 5:10pm

Just painful. I adore O'Brien, as both a director and human being, but this thing is a hot mess. What in the world was he thinking? Well, no one strikes gold every time out. I do feel badly that this is Duff's introduction to NY audiences. She certainly deserves better. Some of the costumes are fabulous. What they're doing telling this particular story we'll never know. And with two spectacular Shakespeare productions running just down the Rialto a piece, just a complete embarrassment. No doubt they'll all recover, but it will take me a bit of time.

[elphaba.scares.me]

Posted: 11/28/13 at 9:43am

The Macbeth curse is one of those things that gets downright ridiculous.

For the young or new-to-these-parts, it is only considered bad luck to SPEAK the name inside a theater. There is no provision, even among the most superstitious, that you can never use the word in your normal life, walking down the street, or in print.

And there 's our free etiquette lesson for today!