Heisenberg NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (375)
See it if you are a MLP fan (I'm not). The play is flimsy, the premise unconvincing. Would a beautiful middle-aged woman pursue an older stranger?
Don't see it if you dislike seeing women as ditzy liars, which is supposed to be charming. Lonely people finding love is lovely, but this is unconvincing.
See it if Interesting but missable. The lead actor was very good. An interesting character study.
Don't see it if You want to take something away from the show. Not memorable.
See it if You like surprises, being thrown off balance, and thinking twice about what is going on. MLP is lively and funny.
Don't see it if You are looking for a more emotional experience. This was mostly an intellectual challenge.
See it if you like ML Parker & you want to see a May-December "love story" about two people inexplicably linked by an accidental (or was it?) meeting.
Don't see it if you have to pay Broadway prices for a bare-bones, stripped-down, glorified one-act play with no heft & no real payoff.
See it if Masterful performances by Parker (at her quirky best) & Arndt (heartbreaking) elevate clever but predictable May-December romantic tale
Don't see it if Off-beat, eccentric love stories leave you cold; author Stephens tries for profundity but rarely succeeds
See it if you appreciate a solid two-hander featuring a couple of great actors at the top of their game.
Don't see it if you're looking for a flashy, effects-heavy production. This show is simple and stripped down.
See it if you enjoy actors who have skillfully honed their craft; you like a mixed dose of comedy, whimsy, tenderness, loneliness and sadness.
Don't see it if your preference in theater leans toward large, elaborate productions. This is an intimate setting, with a two person cast.
See it if You want to see these two fantastic actors in perfect form. More like acting exercises than a play but excellent performances nonetheless.
Don't see it if If you want to see a traditional Broadway show. This is very spare and could have been staged at any high school. Read more
Critic Reviews (79)
"The sexiest couple on a New York stage just now...I groaned when I heard 'Heisenberg' was traveling to Broadway. I would never have predicted that it would seem even more vibrant and emotionally charged...The production’s creative team thwarts expectations at every turn...Mr. Stephens is an uncannily subtle dramatist who never wears his depths on the surface...He makes us see how conventional story lines fail to hold their shape when unspooled within the mess of human reality."
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"If I understand the oblique title correctly, 'Heisenberg' is about how being with another person—being observed, at close range—can affect your direction...Mark Brokaw’s spare production seems even less imposing in the company's Broadway house, but that works to its advantage. Stephens’s carefully crafted 75-minute play has a sense of how little its characters matter to the universe. It makes that smallness feel liberating."
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"One of last year’s best dramas has somehow become one of this year’s best comedies...The two-person cast is still terrific, with Parker doing her best stage work in years, and Arndt again a wonderful surprise to New York audiences. The script, too, is all but unaltered...Yet somehow the spin seems to have reversed direction; it’s now less like a whirlpool pulling you under than a tornado flinging you up...But with the story’s increased size come the social pleasures of large-scale theater."
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"Despite moving to a larger venue, the play is nothing if not intimate...Brokaw’s production itself is wisely bare-bones...The emphasis should be on these two opposites finding something intangible that they’re each missing, and any further frills might distract from that. Stephens’ script is jammed with insightful, unforgettable lines...The show has just enough comedy sprinkled throughout to keep the audience laughing and leave them with plenty to ponder."
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"It is blush-makingly trite...The result is, not to put too fine a point on it, a blatant exercise in masculine wish fulfillment, and it doesn’t help that Ms. Parker seems to think that Georgie is an inexplicably youthful Manic Pixie Dream Girl..Mr. Stephens has aided and abetted Ms. Parker by putting eye-rollingly twee sentences in Georgie’s mouth that no actor, however talented, should be expected to utter with a straight face. He’s the culprit-in-chief—she’s merely a co-conspirator."
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“Mary-Louise Parker and Denis Arndt and this wonderful play have made the transition with deeper performances, even with the volume turned up a notch to accommodate the bigger space. It is, hands down, the most romantic, not to mention sexiest, show in town…The acting is stripped bare as, in the beautifully calibrated performances, Alex’s initial imperturbability yields to Georgie’s ever-more poignant persistence.”
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"For Mary-Louise Parker die-hards, 'Heisenberg' won’t disappoint...There’s fertile material there, along with moments that are lovely and contrived in director Mark Brokaw’s spare staging. But the issue with the play remains unchanged from last year’s Off-Broadway run. Arndt lives his role. Parker plays hers. There’s a nagging difference, that’s for certain."
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"In all its nakedness, Brokaw’s production resembles an acting class, where only a table and chairs would be available to suggest a setting. As it happens, the play itself is just as thin as the production values...Despite its initial promise, this static two-hander quickly goes flat. Nevertheless, Parker and Arndt play off each other wonderfully. Parker is a wild bundle of energy and whimsy, while Arndt, initially the straight man to Parker’s theatrics, eventually opens up and comes to life."
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