Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Reviews- Page 2

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 10:25pm

I agree. Unless the role of Amanda is miraculously taken over by Kristin Chenoweth, I wouldn't expect any praise from Brantley.

I've yet to see it. I have heard every kind of opinion about it, though; ranging from "Best thing in years" to "Worst revival ever." I guess I'll find out for myself a week from Tuesday.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 10:33pm

I saw it this week. I can't imagine for the life of me how ANYONE could call this production the "best thing in years." Such a misguided/misdirected mess on that stage....

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 11:05pm

I'm surprised that Brantley's review isn't up yet.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 11:05pm

I know. It's after 11:00.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 11:06pm

Usually they have his review up by 10...Let's hope it's another rave for the fabulous Ms. Turner.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 11:13pm

*bites nails*

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 11:16pm

Barnes' review isn't up yet, either.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 11:20pm

I'm tired of waiting around for Brantley and Barnes. I'll read them in the morning. Good night!

[magruder]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 11:31pm

Brantley's capsule review is up, and it's a critics pick. The full review is not up, but this seems like a rave.

"Which one are you betting on? The body or the brain? The big-breasted brawler or the spineless professor? Some advice to fans of histrionic blood sports: Don't call this game prematurely. With Kathleen Turner in one corner and Bill Irwin in the other, the balance of power is never fixed in the pulse-racing revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at the Longacre Theater. Everybody ultimately loses in Edward Albee's great marital wrestling match of a play from 1962. But theatergoers who attend this revealingly acted new production, directed by Anthony Page, are destined to leave the Longacre feeling like winners, shaken but stirred by the satisfaction that comes from witnessing one helluva fight. In following Mr. Albee's account of a couple's long-night's journey into dawn, set at their home on an insular New England campus, Mr. Page and company have affectingly scaled a masterpiece back from operatic excess to the tautness of a chamber work. They have done so without sacrificing the emotional intensity or the abundant, alarming humor that finds the gut-wrenching factor in belly laughs. Ms. Turner's Martha is a stunningly spontaneous creature, a wayward life force, while Mr. Irwin's George is a contained, angular study in self-consciousness. In a Broadway season crowded with disappointments, "Virginia Woolf" is a very welcome surprise." — BEN BRANTLEY

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 11:34pm

THANK. GOD.

[Matt_G]

Posted: 3/20/05 at 11:45pm

Fabulous! I'm glad the critics saw the same things I saw in it.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 1:14am

Brantley's full review -- A Rave:

"Which one are you betting on? The body or the brain? The big-breasted brawler or the spineless professor? Some advice to fans of histrionic blood sports: Don't call this game prematurely. With Kathleen Turner in one corner and Bill Irwin in the other, the balance of power is never fixed in the pulse-racing revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," which opened last night at the Longacre Theater.

Everybody ultimately loses in Edward Albee's great marital wrestling match of a play from 1962. But theatergoers who attend this revealingly acted new production, directed by Anthony Page, are destined to leave the Longacre feeling like winners, shaken but stirred by the satisfaction that comes from witnessing one helluva fight.

Tempering the play's notorious vitriol with eye-opening compassion, this interpretation restores characters who have acquired the faces of Freudian monsters to purely human form. In following Mr. Albee's account of a couple's long-night's journey into dawn, set at their home on an insular New England campus, Mr. Page and company have affectingly scaled a masterpiece back from operatic excess to the tautness of a chamber work.

They have done so without sacrificing the emotional intensity or the abundant, alarming humor that finds the gut-wrenching factor in belly laughs. And as the man-eating Martha, Ms. Turner, a movie star whose previous theater work has been variable, finally secures her berth as a first-rate, depth-probing stage actress.

In a Broadway season crowded with disappointments, "Virginia Woolf" is a very welcome surprise."

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/03/21/theater/reviews/21wool.html

Updated On: 3/21/05 at 01:14 AM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 1:15am

Wow. Looks like Turner is going to win the Tony....

[Matt_G]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 1:17am

God, I hope so. She's put so much into this part and and she truly deserves that statue this year.

[chasgoose]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 1:26am

I doubt Turner will win the Tony, you can't forget about Cherry Jones. Also, what was so horrible about The Glass Menagerie? I am usually fairly picky about theatre and I just about loved it when I saw today's matinee! Jessica Lange was amazing and I liked Sarah Paulson as Laura (I know others don't, but I think she was great). Josh Lucas made a couple of strange acting choices, and I got annoyed with the curtain a couple times, but that was about it.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 1:42am

Cherry Jones could win -- but she's won before. That could give an advantage to Turner. Lange won't win. The play is going to get panned.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 1:59am

A terrible, confused set, costume and lighting design -- part naturalistic, part Brechtian experimental avant garde, part just plain weird and all mess (Curtains? And where's the damn table?). I didn't buy Slater as a sensitive (gay) poet for one second which undercuts the entire evening from working as a memory play. Paulson overplays Laura's infirmities to the point that I thought she was retarded. Charles is too smooth for a past his prime factory worker. Lange has her moments, but they're in a vacuum -- she's doing her best in a bad, ill-conceived production.

Updated On: 3/21/05 at 01:59 AM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 4:22am

Clives Barnes gives it Three and a half Stars in the Post:
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/41451.htm

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 4:25am

Peter Marks raves in the Washington Post:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52622-2005Mar20.html

[Lamc16]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 12:14pm

OK, so i already saw it on the 12th, BUT, i also went to the opening last night with my younger sister and i can tell you that there were significant advances from eight days ago. WOW! kathleen turner really stepped up her performance and made such an impression. people all around me were crying during the final moments of the play. i had to remind myself to breath after it was all over. kathleen and bill came out afterwards to sign playbills, so i took my sister. they were both incredibly kind and generous to us. I am soooo glad that the times gave her and the play such a glowing review. that was the one i was really worried about. i REALLY want kathleen to win the TONY. seriously, margo, you should consider revisiting the longacre. you would not be disappointed.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 12:31pm

I didn't get a chance to see it here in Boston, but I remember the reviews for Ms. Turner here were not exactly raves. It sounds like she definitely stepped it up. Yay for her!

~Steven

[magruder]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 12:38pm

Margo was talking about Glass Menagerie in that post at 1:59 AM, Lamc16, not Virginia Woolf, which I think the Divine Margo liked.

[Lamc16]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 12:43pm

if you read margo's first review from last week, she said that kathleen "isn't as devastated in the final scenes as she needs to be -- which hurts the play... Martha needs to feel the slap of reality hit her in the face." all i'm saying is that she dug deeper.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 1:17pm

I have to say, for me, the revelation here was Bill Irwin, the scene-stealer was Enos, Kathleen was Kathleen and Harbour felt like the pretty-boy out of his depth.
I disagree so completely with the critic who said Irwin doesn't show his character buckling under the weight of his failures; on the contrary, what *I* saw was the straw breaking the camel's back. There was an air of repetition in what Martha says of George (how he's missed his chances) that, to me, gives rise to a new George as we are watching the show: a George who bites back with as much teeth and saliva as Martha has been giving for years. I think it's a triumphant evening of revenge for George and Irwin plays it beautifully.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 3/21/05 at 1:19pm

Turner is wonderful and will definitely be nominated...but Cherry is nothing short of remarkable. I'd pay good money to see Miss Jones take on Martha anytime.