The sign in Sidney Brusteins window- Broadway — Page 5

You'll hear bohemian a couple times in the play....

from wiki:

The play is a story about a man named Sidney, his pitfalls within his personal life, and struggles in Bohemian culture. The play premiered October 15, 1964 and received mixed reviews. It encompasses themes of race, suicide and homosexuality and also focuses on individual characters learning to cope with life.

Updated On: 4/26/23 at 07:14 AM

Rachel signed and took pictures with people. Oscar left straight to his car since it was his kids bday but I’m guessing most nights he’ll stop by for a bit

She got exit applause after her big monologue last night.

Miriam Silverman KILLED the show in my opinion. She was my favorite part by far.


Stagedoor was pretty uneventful tonight. Oscar signed half of the stage door, closest to his car. People were understanding other than this one guy yelling. The rest of the cast quickly left without signing. Rachel stopped, chatted, signed, and took pictures though.


I didn’t bring a Sharpie and wasn’t close to where people were exiting tonight so I missed most of it. Stagedooring is always a bit odd. I might try again in a few weeks. I don’t blame any actor for not doing it. They deserve their privacy when they want it.

What’s the running time?

I saw it today and I was floored by the performances but a little mixed on the play itself.

Act I is very well done, if a little talky at times, and really sets up the characters well as a marriage of two clearly different people who are slowly drifting apart and seem more intent on putting each other down than building each other up. Oscar Isaac plays the banjo multiple times during Act I - which I was impressed with since I didn't know he could (although I later remembered his breakthrough role was as a folk singer in "Inside Llewyn Davis". Brosnahan plays her cards very carefully in how she cracks and finally breaks by the end of Act I.

Act II is where things get a bit more murky and muddled, but also where Isaac REALLY gets to show off his range and impressive physicality (since Brosnahan is absent most of Act II). It eventually took the tragic ending for everything to gel a bit better, but ultimately, I did spend a good amount of the act thinking why they needed to drag this out?

Miriam Silverman was KILLER. Her whole posh "Jackie Kennedy/WASP" routine was absolutely hilarious and cringe at the same time, including one punch line she delivered that had me CACKLING. I definitely see her in the Featured Actress race (although my chips firmly remain on Crystal Lucas-Perry for AIN'T NO MO).

SD: It's only the third day and the first two show day, so future results may vary. Oscar and Rachel did not come out after the matinee (and most of the other cast made a quick wave and goodbye). After the evening show, both came out, signed and selfied, and Miriam Silverman also signed as well for those who requested (and seemed genuinely touched by the outpouring of support). As with the afternoon, most of the other cast waved, thanked, and skipped along.

Maybe I missed something — tonight was the official opening, but are they not inviting critics to re-review? Or holding press until later on? Such an unusual situation.

I saw it two nights ago after having seen the BAM production earlier. The play's flaws definitely stuck out more to me this time around, but I still enjoyed and continued to find many of ifs themes to be very relevant.

This time around, I found De Niro's performance lacking - those moments where you're meant to think he's reacting to a chill in the room were jarringly unconvincing.

There's an interesting directorial choice from the BAM production that was omitted:

I had a better view of the lighting rig and could better admire how beautifully the lighting design evokes different times of the day in a typical NYC apartment.

Run time?

i feel an immense pressure to appreciate this play because Lorraine Hansberry deserved a long career and national adulation, and she was robbed of both. And her sharp writing shines through here, and attention must be paid to her talent and insight.

but some writing holds up for 60 years, and some doesnt. its hard to stay rapt with attention when these characters talk in a way thats so strange to my ear, and when the leading man is such a horrible prick. the homophobia and bigotry and misogyny is examined here, yes, but its also forgiven/accepted-- a testament to 1964, yes, but hard to reconcile now. (kudos to the production and Oscar Isaac for sticking with the original script).

i'm not sure i understand what happened at the end of Act 2 between Gloria the sister and David the upstairs neighbor? but mostly, i found myself largely bored--and the audience in general seemed restless. (the orchestra was full of people excited to see Big Celebrities but with none of the attention span required for this).

Both leads were very good, but Brosnahan isn't given a ton to do, and disappears in Act 2. Isaac is great with an annoyingly talky character. As Act 1 ended, I thought of all the performances I had seen that grabbed me by the throat this year, and how nothing onstage tonight did, thinking specifically of TopdogUnderdog for some reason? 2 mins later I saw Corey Hawkins at the bar.

I thought De Niro Jr. did a fine job (have i missed the nepo baby whining about him? Still just Platt and Beanie, huh? Interesting) but the stand out was without a doubt, as others have said, Miriam Silverman. I dont know why Hansberry gave all the energy and best lines to this WASP from the Upper East Side but Silverman runs away with it and deserves the Tony nomination that I assume will be coming her way.

i dont think there are bad seats for this--we were Row H, center-left--but i noticed that AGAIN we have a stage-raised-upon-the-stage situation, ala Parade. I'd imagine front orchestra is not the best.

sinister teashop said: "PipingHotPiccolo said: "I dont know why Hansberry gave all the energy and best lines to this WASP from the Upper East Side but Silverman runs away with it and deserves the Tony nomination that I assume will be coming her way."

To delight Broadway audiences who still feel more in sympathy with Mavis than the smug bohemians of Sidney's world. Hansberry knew what she was doing in creating Mavis. It won Alice Ghostley a Tony Award from the original cast."

Huh? Hansberry was trying to appeal to the bigoted WASPs in the audience by lampooning a bigoted WASP?

Looking at tickets for this and telecharge is showing row O seat 101 as partial view. Does anyone know why this orchestra seat would be partial view?