Why I walked out of IMPRESSIONISM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:22pm

What a well-designed piece of garbage. Scott Pask, Catherine Zuber, Natasha Katz and Elaine McCarthy have all outdone themselves on this awful, uninvolving, unnecessary, unfortunate play.

Someone should tell Michael Jacobs that plays are supposed to ask a dramatic question, 'cause he obviously missed that class. What we have no are two snobby unaffected New Yorkers (one who talks with a funny accent) who work in an art gallery where the paintings come to life to tell their life stories.

Interesting premise - uninvolving script. Nobody cares. That's the problem. These aren't characters, they're 2-dimensional stereotypes of Chelsea snobby New York elite. Who the hell wants to see a play about that? You know they're gonna fall in love, but who cares? I saw no plot by the end of the first act (what a strange place for an intermission), so I scooted out the door.

Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen have absolutely no chemistry or, by the looks on their faces, no real desire to be there. Marsha Mason is wasted; Andre de Shields is play a role that's possibly more stereotyped and disgusting than the monkey that get's jerked off. The other ones can't act, especially that young woman, Margerita something. Good God.

Audience response was tepid at best, they were filming B-roll. The place was no doubt heavily comped with friends of the cast and production team (if I had one more person ask me if I'm here for 'Eliot' or 'a different code name,' I was ready to shoot myself for actually paying).

The highlight of the night, by far, was overhearing the conversation between Mike Nichols and John Guare as I was fleeing. Said Mike, his famous SH*T eating "I'm better than you" grin on his face, "Well, it plays exactly the same way as it reads."

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:25pm

Good for you, YankeeFan. I should have walked out. IMPRESSIONISM was horrendous.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:27pm

Love the Prymate reference Yankeefan! It was worse than Prymate; at least that was amusing.

A truly dreadful night at the theater.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:29pm

The best part of IMPRESSIONISM was getting Andre De Shields to sign my PRYMATE playbill after the show.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:32pm

How the bloody hell does something like this get produced when, oh, gee, I dunno, Lynn Nottage, Itamar Moses, Adam Rapp, Sarah Ruhl, Adam Bock, Eisa Davis, Gina Gionfriddo, Stephen Belber and so forth are still waiting for their big Broadway break just simply boggles my mind.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:46pm

I agree. I think it was my least favorite think I saw all season, and that takes into account American Buffalo and Mourning Becomes Electra.

[scaryclowns2232]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:55pm

Well, to be fair, Stephen Belber has had a show produced on Broadway.

But point very much taken.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 10:57pm

I agree that AMERICAN BUFFALO was better (and that was horrific).

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:00pm

How many weeks is this supposed to run? I wonder if Irons and Allen will be able to sell it on name recognition alone.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:03pm

This will not sell...word of mouth is already starting to get out...and the show has only played like 5 previews!
Updated On: 3/6/09 at 11:03 PM

[April Saul]

Posted: 3/5/09 at 11:05pm

I posted my own thread on this, but while I, too, was disappointed in Impressionism--and you make good points--the second act was far better than the first. Maybe I'm crazy, but I can't bring myself to leave any production halfway through; it shouldn't be this way, but so many of them tend to redeem themselves in the second act. Maybe you should call your post, "My Review of the First Act of Impressionism"? Seriously, we tend not to like it on these boards when people bash things without seeing them; you're bashing the first half of it here, which is, I guess, about fifty percent better than doing it without seeing it at all!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 9:11am

I would have called it a review, but that would have been entirely inaccurate and destroy my credibility (more than readily admitting that I walked out of something).

This isn't a review, it's merely what caused me to decide to leave the show at intermission.

If it got better, my loss.
Updated On: 3/6/09 at 09:11 AM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 9:33am

Don't worry Yankeefan...it didn't get better, just easier to follow.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 9:59am

See, I didn't have a hard time following it. I figured out the deal by the second flashback. But there wasn't a plot.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 10:09am

Thank you for doing your duty to the world of broadway, however begrudgingly.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 10:21am

It is my duty, after all. Begrudgingly or not.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 10:22am

Duty, compulsion, tomato, tomahto.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 10:52am

You aren't the only one to have walked out. There have been a few walkouts all week.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 10:55am

I was a walkout on Monday night. God what a dreadful play. With this and 33 VARIATIONS, the question starts to be Why Good Actors Choose Such Crappy Plays?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 11:20am

What a well-designed piece of garbage.

That pretty much sums up how I felt about Desire Under the Elms.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 6:30pm

We see it tomorrow. We eat at Juniors afterwards so it won't be a total loss. The only shows we ever walked out on were Copenhagen & Stones In My Pocket.

This sounds like a train wreck akin to Moose Murders.

Mrs R is really thrilled to see it after reading this thread i can tell you. She is putting vodka in her water bottle. It can only help. What is the running time of this masterpiece?

Updated On: 3/6/09 at 06:30 PM

[Chris537]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 7:26pm

Currently, the running time is such that the show is down at 10:10PM. Beginning this Tuesday, the show will have no intermission, so the running time will be that much shorter.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 7:31pm

"This sounds like a train wreck akin to Moose Murders."

It is nowhere near as close to as bad as MOOSE MURDERS was...

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 7:42pm

At least Moose Murders was entertaining. It was so bad it was good!

[blaxx]

Posted: 3/6/09 at 7:52pm

And neither Copenhagen nor Stones were plays to walk out on.

Hpmh!