"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 productionâs 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 personâbeing observed, at close rangeâcan affect your direction...Mark Brokawâs spare production seems even less imposing in the company's Broadway house, but that works to its advantage. Stephensâs 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 yearâs best dramas has somehow become one of this yearâs 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; itâs now less like a whirlpool pulling you under than a tornado flinging you up...But with the storyâs increased size come the social pleasures of large-scale theater."
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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 doesnât 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 Georgieâs mouth that no actor, however talented, should be expected to utter with a straight face. Heâs the culprit-in-chiefâsheâs merely a co-conspirator."
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âMary-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 townâŚThe acting is stripped bare as, in the beautifully calibrated performances, Alexâs initial imperturbability yields to Georgieâs ever-more poignant persistence.â
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"For Mary-Louise Parker die-hards, 'Heisenberg' wonât disappoint...Thereâs fertile material there, along with moments that are lovely and contrived in director Mark Brokawâs spare staging. But the issue with the play remains unchanged from last yearâs Off-Broadway run. Arndt lives his role. Parker plays hers. Thereâs a nagging difference, thatâs for certain."
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"Despite moving to a larger venue, the play is nothing if not intimate...Brokawâs production itself is wisely bare-bones...The emphasis should be on these two opposites finding something intangible that theyâre each missing, and any further frills might distract from that. Stephensâ 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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"In all its nakedness, Brokawâs 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 Parkerâs theatrics, eventually opens up and comes to life."
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