VENUS IN FUR Reviews

Today is Tuesday, November 8, marking the official opening night performance of Venus in Fur, David Ives' latest offering, in its Broadway premiere following preview performances which began October 13, and after an Off-Broadway incarnation in 2010. Up-and-coming Broadway starlet, Nina Arianda returns to play Vanda, again under the direction of Walter Bobbie, joined by Hugh Dancy, who plays Thomas in this two-hander.

This limted engagement, produced by Manhattan Theater Club, has performances scheduled through December 18 at the Friedman.

amNY is mostly positive (3 stars) with a rave for Nina:

"In lesser hands, it might not work at all. But thanks to the stunning performance of Nina Arianda, solid support from her co-star Hugh Dancy and the spot-on direction of Walter Bobbie, "Venus in Fur" makes for an often captivating experience. There's no nudity, but this is one of the most genuinely sexual shows you've ever seen."

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/theater-review-venus-in-fur-3-stars-1.3306292

Updated On: 11/8/11 at 07:58 PM

Variety is mixed:

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117946546'

"Venus in Fur," David Ives' cheeky adaptation of Leopold Sacher-Masoch's erotic 1870 novel and originally mounted at the Classic Stage Company, improves a lot in this Broadway transfer."

"But even at under two hours, the play still feels overworked, padded with repetitive seduction scenes and overwrought psycho-sexual arguments -- much of it delivered in stilted 19th-century locutions. Talk about sadism."

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Haha. Yup. I was about to post the same. Great minds use the same pull quotes?

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Off-Broadway the reviews were mixed too. The raves were all for Nina, not the play. Some people loved the play, but the praise for Nina was almost unanimous.

Backstage is positive:

"There is some loss of intimacy in the transfer from CSC's vest-pocket three-quarter space to the Samuel Friedman's Broadway-scale proscenium, but Walter Bobbie's staging remains robust, seamlessly shifting from theater-insider comedy to near-porn-level eroticism. Peter Kaczorowski's versatile lighting aids in this department, providing multiple moods, as do Anita Yavich's sexy costumes, which facilitate the metamorphosis from the "real" world where the play begins to the nightmarish realm of sexual fantasy where it ends.

But Arianda remains the engine that drives this intermissionless thrill ride, revving on all cylinders as she progresses from desperate actor to imperious seductress to all-powerful goddess. She gets an added fuel injection from her new acting partner. Dancy adds depths to Thomas that the role's originator, Wes Bentley, failed to find. "

http://www.backstage.com/bso/reviews-ny-theatre-broadway/ny-review-venus-in-fur-1005489162.story

The Hollywood Reporter is mixed-positive.

"David Ives play is a tart divertissement that lacks concision, but Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy sizzle."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/venus-fur-theater-review-258934

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Isherwood reviewed for the New York Times, and it's a rave (especially for Arianda).

"Lightning flashes intermittently throughout “Venus in Fur,” the spooky sex comedy by David Ives that sizzled open on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater on Tuesday night. But you’re not really likely to notice. The flickering of those stage lights barely registers beside the incandescent Nina Arianda, the sensational young actress recreating the role that made her a name to watch when she first starred in the play Off Broadway. Portraying an actress giving the audition of a lifetime, Ms. Arianda is giving the first must-see performance of the Broadway season, a bravura turn that burns so brightly you can almost feel the heat on your face.

To describe Mr. Ives’s play as a sex comedy may conjure images of creaky old farces involving philandering bosses and naughty secretaries. But while it’s as funny as any play currently on Broadway, “Venus in Fur,” stylishly directed by Walter Bobbie, is also something darker, stranger and altogether more delicious: a suspense-packed study of the erotics (and the semiotics) of power, in which the two participants — the terrific Hugh Dancy portrays the writer-director hosting the audition — prove to be seriously, almost scarily adept....

....I’m not sure Mr. Ives himself has settled firmly on a resolution to the play’s central mystery — the motives and identity of the elusive Vanda — but who cares? With the commanding Ms. Arianda giving a performance of such intoxicating allure, “Venus in Fur” provides a seriously smart and very funny stage seminar on the destabilizing nature of sexual desire: vanilla-flavored, kink-festooned or anything in between."

http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/theater/reviews/venus-in-fur-by-david-ives-with-nina-arianda-review.html?pagewanted=1

Updated On: 11/8/11 at 10:12 PM

A rave from Bloomberg and a HUGE RAVE for Nina.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-09/kinky-venus-sizzles-on-broadway-sam-waterston-s-lear-review.html

"But the effortless changes of temperament, accent and gesture here, and the giddy-making timing, reveal virtuosity of higher dimension altogether. Shes dazzling."

(Dreaming...I'm thinking you may be right about that Tony)

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The Village Voice is mixed.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2011/11/venus_in_fur_on.php

"It's not all smoothly entertaining--the play within a play is less riveting than the actor-versus-playwright dynamic, and without an intermission, it's a long sit--but for a pristinely acted literary sex comedy, it's hard to beat Venus In Fur, except with a stick."

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Theatermania is a RAVE for the play, Arianda, and Dancy.

http://www.theatermania.com/broadway/reviews/11-2011/venus-in-fur_44250.html

"Everything about the vibrant and provocative piece seems to have been enriched by its transfer from the intimate thrust venue downtown to the larger proscenium house uptown."

"Two exceptional performers -- Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy -- square off like prize fighters in David Ives' Venus in Fur, playing at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway."

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Yep, I think she may have nailed it. The reviews speak for themselves. And she will deserve it for an extraordinary performance.

It will be an uphill battle for Arianda, as the show will be long closed by Tony time. The voters seem to suffer from short term memory.

Somewhat surprisingly, Matthew Murray is VERY positive with the love letter of all love letters for Nina:

"Arianda, however, provides no end of it. With every word, every glance, every****of her hip she says something new about the way men view women, about the way writers and directors view actors, and about the way human beings view each other. What you glean from her every second onstage is that you should never take anyone for granted because you have no way of knowing what he or she is truly capable of — you can always be surprised.

This is what the Vandas are all about, to be sure, but Arianda crows it loudest of all as she stakes her claim to pride of place among the upcoming generation of stage stars. If there's any justice in the world, Arianda and the infinite characters she's apparently capable of playing will be crowing that on Broadway for years, if not decades, to come."

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

ETA: I love that BWW won't allow the use of the word "c-ck" to mean "tilt". Way to go, auto-censor...

Updated On: 11/8/11 at 11:43 PM